


Pearl

by OneHitWondersAnonymous



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Angst, Disturbing Themes, Gen, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-20 19:53:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4800203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneHitWondersAnonymous/pseuds/OneHitWondersAnonymous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pearl is a manufactured gem who finds herself born into cruelty before she knew anything different. When she is found to be a defective model, she is cast aside to be destroyed, as is customary, but a factory worker has a different idea. Suddenly Pearl finds herself locked in Homeworld's underground gem-fighting rings and must learn to survive, or be crushed. What will become of a defective pearl with an unexpected advantage in the rings? Will Pearl ever learn of life outside the illegal fighting scene? What comes next is never certain.</p>
<p>Pearl's origin story has been explored by many, in many different ways, but this is my take. Please take a look and enjoy! Warnings are for graphic violence and disturbing themes, notably including slavery and the mass-production theory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Opening

The story of a pearl was never a particularly happy one, and rarely a very free one.

Kindergartens were reserved for the battle-ready gems, which, though also used to mass-produce for a very specific niche, received much more attention than the pearl factories created above ground. The Homeworld was riddled with the factories, something civilians murmured and complained about under privileged breaths. The smog from their smokestacks did muddy the sky, but no one questioned the media’s explanation that it was simply a waste product from cheaply fueled machinery billowing from the rooftops.

 No one truly knew what went on inside unless they worked there, or were born there. Even if they were pearls born from their dark chambers, they were preprogrammed to be unable to speak ill of it after release. Employees were threatened to keep quiet.

If any ordinary gem were able to breach its walls, however, they would likely be disturbed with what they found, but no one ever did, so no one ever cared. Their biggest issue was with the ominous dark smoke ever pluming. They never thought to peek inside.

Inside, however, is where this story begins. It is the story of a pearl gone rogue, too self-aware for its purpose, too real.


	2. B27A20

She awoke with a start for the first time without truly knowing if it was her first time awakening at all. She could hear before she could see. It sounded like machinery beeping, but she didn’t know how she knew that. Voices were speaking as though they were directly in her ears. She tried to move but realized she couldn’t, and resorted to waiting for her open eyes to begin to see.

Her vision transitioned from black to a blotchy attempt to fuzzy blobs to recognizable bodies and faces. There were bodies all around her, moving back and forth in and out of her line of sight. As she came to, she realized that the voices  _were_ directly in her ears, in a device designed to localize sound. They were a little uncomfortable. On second thought, she didn’t actually know what uncomfortable meant.

She began to understand the words being spoken to her. “I… Meant for… Pearl… I am to... Pearl Unit B27A20.” She realized this was her name. ‘I am a Pearl,’ She thought. The phrase was repeated often in her hearing device. “I am Pearl Unit B27A20. My purpose is data analysis and storage, and servitude. I am Pearl Unit B27A20. I am to be used exclusively as a servant. My identity is meaningless. I am Pearl Unit B27A20. My serial number is-” The messages were constant and swirled in her mind without comprehension.

Before she had time to process much of anything else, she repeated what she had latched onto verbally. Though she couldn’t hear herself, her lips were moving and her vocal cords were vibrating. “I am Pearl.” She said each time the recording said it, in sync. After several repetitions she began reciting the other phrases as well. The bodies began to take notice. She recognized that these were other creatures like her.

Quite suddenly the hearing device was pulled from her head and her ears were assaulted with a din that made her wish the voice was back. Another being was right in front of her and slightly above eye level. “What are you?” It asked in the same voice that was in her hearing device. 

  
“I am Pearl.” She said, and was surprised by her own voice. It was a sound she would have to get used to. It was different from the recording. The creature frowned.

“What are you?” It asked again, its eyes crossed in what she interpreted as irritation. Pearl was confused.

 “...I am Pearl.” She repeated, unsure of what she was doing wrong.

“What is your serial number?” She asked impatiently. She seemed almost uncomfortable.

Pearl suddenly lost control of her voice. It was a strange feeling. “My serial number is 4918853285-P.” Her voice sounded different this time. It was flat. She thought she didn’t like it. It sounded more like the voices in her hearing device.

She seemed to show relief at her response, though Pearl didn’t know why. “Thank you,” She said, which garnered sharp, cross looks from the other bodies around her. Apparently that was bad. Her neutral expression broke momentarily into nervousness before returning to a pallid stare deep into Pearl’s eyes. “What are you?” She asked again.

“I am Pearl B27A20.” Her voice was still monotone and she definitely didn’t like it. It felt wrong. She blinked back to her senses. “Where am I?” She asked.

“You are in Synthesis Facility 467, in Faction 9 of the Homeworld. You were created here. You are being tested for later processing and refinement.” Pearl didn’t know what refinement meant, but it didn’t sound pleasant.

“What is refinement?” She asked, curious.

 “Stop asking questions,” She snapped, her voice becoming hostile, “You follow orders. You do not ask questions. Am I clear?” She said.

“You are clear.” Pearl repeated. It seemed like this was the best thing to say. Her curiosity was boundless, though. In her mind spun many thoughts about life, about where she was, about what she was doing here, what was going to happen here.

The other being sighed, clearly frustrated. She began speaking to what seemed to be no one and nothing.  “The subject is answering questions correctly and speaking coherently, although exhibiting strange characteristics resembling individualism. I am flagging the case but will pass her onto the second stage. Any further deviations should warrant considerations for a Recall.”

Before Pearl could ask what a Recall was or what her name was, a barrier fell down around her with a sound like a sheathing sword, encapsulating her. It looked like plastic and had a slight green tinge, much like the other’s safety visor. She could have sworn she heard her say “good luck,” before her capsule was vaulted into the air on a thick cable line. Pearl gasped and held her breath, filled with sudden exhilarating fear.

Colors and bright lights passed in front of her pod before she could conceive them. The line snapped to a stop and Pearl felt a huge lurch as the capsule steadied itself, suspended high above where she had started.

“I am Pearl,” She whispered to herself, attempting to love the name, “Hello, I am Pearl.” It wasn’t really working, so she stopped.

The line jolted to a start again, but this time the movement was slow and uniform. Pearl’s casing joined several others that looked identical to the one she was in—as far as she could tell, anyway. She was still unable to move, and couldn’t really tell what her own case looked like aside from what was in her forward and peripheral vision.

The line moved slowly forward, a single-file thread of pods. Pearl wondered if there were more things like her in them. It seemed likely.

She was pulled into a hole almost like a suspended hallway away from the rest of the line. The light grew dimmer the further into the hallway she traveled, until all she could see was a thin outline of herself. She started in surprise- she could see herself! The lack of light seemed to give reflective qualities to the green shield in front of her.

She took a long time taking in what she looked like in the reflection of the pod. Her own eyes were a light blue and larger than the other lady she had talked to earlier, and her nose was so long! She noticed the reason she was unable to move was a combination of restraining clothing and chains that had no weight to them. The clothing looked a little disturbing, the way her limbs were twisted up to be nearly immobile. The chains were a light green and didn’t look quite corporeal, but they held her limbs in place very rigidly. Pearl tried to look past her reflection again to see what was happening outside her pod.  _‘I look awful,’_ she thought.  _‘Is this normal?’_

The pod suddenly dropped down in much the same way it zoomed up earlier, and landed with a thud onto a metallic ground that clinked loudly at impact. Pearl braced herself and felt her head jostled by the drop. Her vision seemed to swirl a little and her head hurt.

The visor slid itself up and Pearl was now able to see a dark and dingy room. It was grittier than the first one and somehow managed to be even less welcoming. Pearl looked around wildly when she realized she couldn’t see anyone. “Hello?” She called out, nervous.

“Hush,” a voice said from a dark corner. It was quiet but still forceful. Pearl started in surprise. “What are you?” It asked as its footsteps echoed off the walls.

“I am Pearl.” She said, but quickly realized her mistake. “S-sorry, I am Pearl B27A20. My serial number is 4918-“

“That’s enough.” The voice said with a tinge of irritation. She stepped into the light. She looked remarkably similar to Pearl, with only a few variations in color and dress. “Hold steady. I’m about to remove you from the pod.”

Pearl nodded. The capsule made hissing sounds as it deconstructed from the bottom up. It cracked like an egg and was pulled back up to the ceiling, leaving Pearl exposed save for a stiff length of metal that her chains were attached to on her back.

The other person walked up to her with a bored expression on her face, and Pearl was able to see that their eyes were the same color. “Blink,” she said and Pearl obliged, and she continued to ask for other movements that Pearl assumed were to test her motor control. “Look left to right. Good, right to left. Good. Turn your head to the left.” Pearl’s neck was stiff, but she was able to turn her head just slightly with effort. “Good. To the right now.” Pearl obeyed.

This person once again talked to nothing, though Pearl noticed she could have been talking to a device that was on her wrist. “B27A20 exhibits average basic motor skills of the eyes, head and neck.”

The other person looked back into Pearl’s eyes. They were intimidating but Pearl wasn’t scared. “I am Pearl A11A20. You may call me A11 to avoid confusion, since we are of the same gem.”

“Gem?” Pearl asked, confused.

A11 gave a questioning look before answering. “Yes, you are a gem. We are all gems. Do you not know this?”

Pearl shook her head. She sighed heavily. “They keep making my job even more difficult. Okay then, I’ll start with the basics.

“You are what is called a gem. You are comprised of a pearl, which is a cheaply made gem used to make servants and occasionally production technicians, like me. Your arms are restrained but look on my forehead- all of our gems are located on our foreheads, and yours is there too. See if you can feel it without touching it.”

She paused for a moment while Pearl closed her eyes and tried to sense her gem. Sure enough, her gem resonated with the strength of all of her thought and she was able to understand that all her being came from the gem. She opened her eyes. “I see,” she said.

A11 nodded. “Your body is something that your gem creates not out of necessity but out of convenience. What I mean is that everything about you is inside of your pearl, and your body is just a projection to allow you to communicate with your surroundings. If your body is badly damaged or injured, you will simply return to being only a pearl, and regenerate your form. However, if your gem is cracked or damaged, it will cause your body to be unable to properly project itself into a body like mine or yours is now. Do you see?”

Pearl nodded more enthusiastically. She was enjoying learning. “Okay, uh, A11,” she said, not sure how the assigned name felt on her tongue, “what else shall I do for you?”

A11 smirked a bit. “Good, already exhibiting signs of servitude.” She turned away and whispered a similar statement into her wrist device. Pearl smiled. She was starting to feel a little more comfortable, despite the fact that she was still partially restrained. A11 was good at her job, she thought.

“Alright B27,” Pearl had to take a moment to realize that was her, “Let’s get on with the testing.”

For what seemed like forever Pearl was asked to do mundane tasks like move her arms up and down and bend her knees, to show dexterity or some other jargon A11 seemed to make up as they went along. It became numbing to the brain, until A11 asked her to summon her weapon.

“A weapon?” Pearl asked. “I have one of those?”

“Technically speaking, yes,” A11 said, “but it’s not truly a weapon.” She brought a hand to her forehead and from her pearl shot a bright light and a thin pole. She pulled a large flagpole from her gem and set it clacking onto the hard ground. It had a flag with a bright insignia of a large yellow diamond surrounded by several embellishments. “Now you, please.”

Pearl was at a bit of a loss. “How?”

A11’s face wrinkled in annoyance. “You’re slow on the uptake hm?” She sighed harshly. “Bring your hand to eye level, and think about what you want to pull from your gem. It should be exactly the same, but the flag itself will be blank, as you have not sworn allegiance to an owner yet.”

Pearl was becoming a bit off-put by the description of ‘owner’, implying that she was an object to own and control and nothing else. She thought back to the voices she first heard, however, and remembered that they told her that she was worthless. She nodded a bit in silent understanding.

Pearl brought her hand to her gem and concentrated on a flag exactly like A11’s. She crossed her eyebrows from the strain, but soon a bright light shot forth from her pearl exactly as it had from A11’s. A pole had stuck out from her gem. She felt a swell of excitement from the summoning, and gripped the pole. She pulled, and closed her eyes as she felt the long shoot leave her gem and make the same clicking sound as A11’s flag as the bottom hit the ground. She held a wide, proud smile and opened her eyes, but A11’s expression was not approving like she’d hoped but one of terror and confusion.

Pearl’s smile vanished. “What’s wrong?” She asked, but she found her answer very quickly. Looking to her side, she could clearly see that her weapon was not a flag at all. It was a long, sleek spear, with a swirled razor-sharp tip pointing toward the ceiling. Pearl gasped and dropped the spear immediately, and it broke into a cloud of smoke before it hit the ground. Pearl took a few instinctive steps back.

“I-I don’t know what that is, A11? What should I do? A11? What did I do wrong, should I try again?” She asked, but received nothing but more of the mortified expression from before. She could feel hot tears prick at the corners of her eyes. “Should I try again?” Pearl repeated, and brought a hand to her forehead again.

“Stop!” A11 suddenly shouted, breaking Pearl’s concentration and shutting out the light from her gem. Pearl covered her mouth and stumbled back another few steps. She felt very afraid.

“What is wrong with you?” A11 spat with a hint of fear in her tone. “Your weapon is supposed to be a flag! I’ve never seen such a horrid display in all my years working here!” A11’s face was twisted into a form of hatred Pearl couldn’t understand. The tears began to fall.

“What is so bad about it?” Pearl asked. Her voice was clearly pained as she strained her throat against the tears. “I can try to change it, if you’ve never seen it then I’m sure that it can be easily fixed. Let me try again, please-“

“NO!” Screeched A11. “That’s enough!” Pearl went quickly silent and the quiet of the room was so thick she fought to stop her breath, for fear it would trigger another attack from her mentor.

Pearl was stopped abruptly when she realized she had backed herself all the way into the wall. She gripped at the wall’s column in an attempt to find purchase before her shaking legs failed her.

A11 was panting. She threw her wrist to her mouth. “Unit B27A20 is severely defective and shall be sent to the Recall department immediately. See to it that she is Recalled as soon as possible.” She gritted her teeth and pressed a few buttons on her wrist device, and before Pearl could blink her arms and legs were wrapped in green chains again. She let out a soft cry as she fell forward without any balance. She shook in fear with her gem pressed to the cool ground.

Pearl gasped as A11 took a fistful of her hair and yanked her up to eye level. She winced in pain. “You are lucky that you lived so long. Burn for your disgusting display. You are no pearl worth seeing.” Pearl’s eyes were wide in fear and confusion.

 “Please, I don’t know what I did wrong!” She pleaded, the tears leaving thick trails down her thin cheeks.

 “You were different. That’s what you did wrong.” A11 said, now blank-faced. “Send down the containment pod.”

 A capsule fell around her and chained her even tighter to a new metallic board laid along her spine. It felt more oppressive and cruel than the first one and she struggled to breathe through a combination of crying and tightening cords around her neck. She choked and gave silent desperate looks to A11, but received no response. The last thing she saw before the capsule plunged her into complete darkness was the stoic, unfeeling face of A11 as she called in for a new pearl to test.

 


	3. Hematite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl has just made a grievous error, accidentally revealing her defect. After realizing she is condemned to die for her spear's existence, she fights for a chance to live. Her chance comes in a way she could never have expected, however, and she is left to wonder whether simply dying would have been a better fate.

Pearl struggled to relax as her breaths came in shuddering, high pitch gasps. She felt very, very afraid, and wasn’t sure what was happening to her. She couldn’t seem to get enough air in her lungs. The world was ending.

Her new capsule swung wildly through the facility in a way that was not by any means safe or comfortable. She felt her head knocking from side to side but she couldn’t see anything but inky blackness all around. There was a thin crack along the bottom that showed some semblance of light, however, and that gave Pearl a strange feeling of relief, like she wasn’t blinking out of existence.

The capsule stopped short and plunged downward. Pearl bit back a cry of surprise and fought the horrible feeling in her stomach that must have come from the free fall.

She seemed to be falling forever before she came to an abrupt stop. Her head slammed against the top of the pod and she blinked away stars and pain with a groan. She panicked momentarily and scaled her gem for cracks or chips but found none.

Pearl was suddenly assaulted by bright artificial light and hissed at the second wave of pain that came behind her eyes. She squinted and tried to raise her arm over her eyes to shield them but realized she was still tied very tightly to the sheet of thick metal behind her back. She looked left and right wildly then, in an attempt to figure out where she was.

“Hello? What’s going on?!” She yelled, not sure if anyone was getting the message. “Let me go!”

“Not yet, B27.” A large gem stepped into the room through an automatic door. “That line has been giving me a lot of trouble, maybe we should scrap the whole thing,” she said to another gem following closely behind and to her right. Their boots made loud clicks as they stepped toward Pearl at a nonchalant pace. “What’s wrong with this one?” She asked.

“Um, her flag is deformed, ma’am.” Said the smaller gem beside her, her head lazily tilted toward a holographic screen projected in front of her. “She was flagged earlier for cognitive issues as well.”

“Then why did we waste our time with stage two?” She said, clearly irritated. “Get her ready for Recall already.” She waved an arm at Pearl as she spoke and turned toward the door.

“Yes, Commander! Right away,” she replied. She pressed a few buttons and Pearl’s chains disappeared, the metal board falling noisily to the ground behind her. Pearl tensed and crouched in defense.

“Who are you?” Pearl asked loudly. “What is Recall? Someone speak to me!” She felt angry and desperate for answers.

“Excuse you.” The commanding gem turned back with a furious look in her eyes. She stomped quickly to Pearl and grabbed her jaw before she could dodge. Pearl cried out as she was pulled off her feet. “I do the ordering around here, got it? Shut your trap before I make your Recall more painful than it has to be. The regulations are easily overlooked in this dump.” She sneered and dropped Pearl back to the ground where she crumpled.

Pearl crossed her eyebrows in anger. “Who put you in charge? You’re a monster.” She muttered.

She laughed so loudly Pearl resisted the urge to cover her ears. “Are you kidding me? You’re a riot! We should keep you around if only for a good laugh. Look,” she began, her grin wolfish, “since you’ve made me laugh, I’ll tell you. I’m Commander Beryl, who was given the jurisdiction to get rid of you, a disfigured pearl, in what we call a Recall. A Recall, you see, is a very simple, easy process that allows our pearl production to move efficiently and produce only the finest products.”

Beryl took great amusement from watching Pearl’s face screw up in fear. “You see, when pearls like you are found in our refinement process, pearls that aren’t worth keeping, we put them into a big room.” She extended the word ‘big’ and made a wide gesture with her arms. “You all get a few minutes to hear your sentencing over an intercom, which I must say is rather gracious of White Diamond to provide. Then you know exactly why you’re being burned.” She grinned ear to ear.

“You see we put you all together. Then we push you all into a much smaller room without much space with all of your bodies still projected. Then we burn you. It’s actually more like cooking, since we raise the temperature of the chamber to one that can peel away at a pearl’s many layers instead of just setting fire to you. Some of you do catch on fire anyway, though. You’re only conscious for about, hm, maybe thirty seconds before you retreat to your gem and another thirty seconds before your entire consciousness is destroyed. Does that sound right Morganite, sixty seconds?”

Beryl had continued on about the Recalling, but Pearl had heard all she needed. She felt numb. _‘They_ burn _us!’_ she thought over and over. Her mind was racing and full of horrifying thoughts and images she was confused she had despite never actually seeing the events. She was glad she had already fallen to the ground, because she doubted her legs would hold her with how much they shook and how little she felt them. “Why?” She asked quietly.

“Well we can’t have shoddy products leaving our factory, Pearl.” She flinched at the use of a more personal name. “We have a reputation to uphold. ‘The finest pearls around or your money back!’ the motto goes. You’re hardly useful and honestly just a luxury for the wealthy gems out there. I don’t know how someone would justify spending money on one of you, especially if you’re all this dull.”

Pearl frowned and allowed her face to reflect her anger. “I am _not_ dull. I can do everything you can do!” She motioned to stand herself up but paused as another guffaw escaped Beryl’s lips.

“Oh really, flag bearer? What could you possibly do that I couldn’t do better?” Beryl’s smirk seemed permanent. “Come on, quiz me.”

Pearl took a moment to think. She didn’t know much about herself yet, but she did know why she was considered defective. “I’m not a flag bearer.” She muttered, pushing to her feet. She noticed Morganite fall back a few steps.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you. I can even speak better than you! Well done, B27. You’ve done the opposite of prove your point.” Beryl was picking dirt from her nails with an exaggerated amount of indifference.

Pearl braced herself. “I have a real weapon. I-I can fight!” She summoned the end of her spear from her gem in one fluid motion and pulled it from her forehead with a fast flick of the blade in Beryl’s direction. Suddenly, the commander didn’t look so smug. Her face held a flash of confusion before turning to rage.

“So this is your defect, you have an offensive weapon!” Beryl’s smile was gone and replaced with a deep scowl. The gem at her chest glowed bright and Beryl produced a long sword with a deadly hook at the end reminiscent of a scythe. She bashed it into the side of Pearl’s spear. Pearl struggled to keep their blades evenly matched.

“Commander Beryl!” Morganite peeped. “Leave this to me commander, I can easily turn her off!” Pearl shuddered at the thought of her life being in such a tiny gem’s hands. She could be turned off?

“No,” Beryl growled, shifting her blade against the spear, “I’m going to play with this one a bit. I’ve been bored all day. I need this.” Murder curdled in her eyes. Morganite gulped a quick yes’m before retreating to the corner of the room.

“You have spunk, I’ll give you that. B27A20 is a code I won’t soon forget.” Beryl’s sword scraped against the swirls of Pearl’s spearhead.

“That’s not my name.” Pearl said in defiance, and she pushed back at the sword challenging her weapon. “My name is Pearl. I am not a number.” Beryl only seemed to grow more enraged.

“You will never be more than a number, you disgusting common salt lick.” Beryl pushed with strength she had obviously been holding back and knocked Pearl back several feet. She gasped in surprise. “Although, I doubt even livestock would value you.”

Beryl charged at the now vulnerable Pearl, but she had just a moment to jump out of the way as her blade came down and gouged a steel beam. Beryl growled in frustration.

 _‘I am smaller, I can move faster. Maybe this can actually work!’_ Pearl thought, but any feelings of hope were quickly dashed when Beryl made a move too quick for her to dodge and slashed her shoulder. Blood sprayed as she froze in sudden fear. _‘Absolutely not, I’m an idiot. This can’t work. I’m not strong enough. I can’t dodge forever!’_

Pearl considered giving up in that moment as Beryl relished in the drawing of her blood. It would be easy to surrender. Maybe this death would be less painful than consciously burning to death. As she dodged Beryl’s stabs, she weighed her options. There were no good ones. Without warning, however, Beryl stopped chasing her, easily wrenched her spear out of her grasp, and interrupted Pearl’s thoughts by surprise. “You know, I may have another use for you.

“Usually after we burn the bad pearls we only burn enough to peel away the consciousness of the defective product, and then that husk is used to make a new pearl without starting from scratch. It saves time and resources. But you,” Beryl pointed her sword directly at Pearl’s chest. She flinched and gulped down her fear. She noticed her spear puff into clouds of smoke several feet away. “You have something special that I think I could get a fast buck out of.”

Morganite gasped. “U-um, Commander Beryl, you do know that selling defective pearls with the knowledge of their defect is an illegal practice under synthesis facility legal code 7.3-“

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you.” Beryl rolled her eyes. “You see Morganite, I’m a Commander. That typically means I’ve been through more stuff than you can dream of. That also means it’s pretty easy for me to bend the records and rules.” Morganite swallowed loudly and nodded.

“You have an actual weapon, it sets you above the rest. I’m sure some of the wealthier pearlfighters would _love_ to get their slimy hands on you. You’d make them a fortune!”

Pearl shrunk. “Fighters..?”

Beryl waved off her questioning. “It’s an underground practice that I personally find to be below myself, but hey, some people like to do some bad things.” Pearl fought down a grumble. As if this factory business wasn’t a bad thing too. “Morganite, help me smuggle her out.”

“What?!” Morganite squeaked. “B-but Commander, what if we’re caught? We’ll both lose our jobs!”

Beryl scowled. “I really doubt that about myself, you on the other hand… It’s either risk it or just get fired by me now for disobeying my orders anyway. Your call, runt.” The disgusting smirk Pearl had grown to hate grew on Beryl’s face again while she watched Morganite frantically nod her head.

“Y-yes, Commander Beryl.” She bowed lowly.

Beryl casually walked up to Pearl where she was crouched in a defensive position. “We’ll probably be able to sell her at auction. We might get a better deal that way.” She was closing in on Pearl now, who could see the scuffmarks on her boots at this proximity. “Hey, hold still,” Beryl said. Pearl looked up, and the last thing she saw was Beryl’s fist going straight for her face. After that, it was only stars, pain, and unconsciousness.

 

* * *

 

 

Pearl’s head throbbed as she began to come to, groaning in pain. She went to rub her eyes to try to rub out the headache, but her arms were knotted behind her. _‘This is getting old,’_ she thought with an irritated sigh.

She could hear a lot of voices speaking very loudly. She blinked her eyes open slowly, and blanched. She was on some sort of stage, with a sea of gems yelling and thrusting money into the air in their tight fists. She looked left and right to ground herself. There were other gems that looked like her all lined up on either side of her and tied similarly, in chairs with their hands behind their backs. They all had tired, but somewhat optimistic looks.

“Hey,” one whispered, and Pearl jerked her head to the left to react to the voice, “we’re getting auctioned now. These owners seem nice!” She smiled at Pearl in an attempt to make her feel safer. Pearl returned the smile, but remained wary.

“What are pearlfighters?” She whispered back. The other shrugged.

“Dunno, but I’m not worried about it. One of these gems will be my new owner soon! I’m so excited to serve,” she exclaimed with a peppy tone. Pearl grimaced in slight disgust at her optimism.

“We’re defective, don’t these owners know that?” Pearl worried her lip. The other pearl just gave her a very confused look.

“What? Probably, why though? I’m sure they’ll take great care of us!” The perkiness was getting old fast. Pearl gnashed her teeth. Before she could leave a scathing remark, however, a booming voice quieted the crowd.

“Welcome, welcome to the nightly auction everyone!” The loud voice commanded the room, and all the gems in the crowd below clapped politely. “Without further ado, I’d like to start with our first pearl unit, B26C13. She comes with-“ Pearl drowned out his babble while she tried to figure out the puzzle of her position.

 _'These must be pearlfighters,’_ she thought, _‘but what does that mean? Are they going to fight us for sport?’_ She shuddered at the idea. _‘I’m hoping not.’_

“And next we have the lovely B27A20! She looks practically perfect, don’t she?” Pearl snapped out of her thoughts. The crowd oohed and ogled Pearl like hungry animals. “I’ve got her set at a much higher price, and for good reason. She’s got a very valuable defect.” The noisy gem sent a fake beaming smile to her.

Some sort of mediator, which was stationed at the end of the stage, stepped in front of Pearl. “Summon your weapon.” She said with a blank stare.

Pearl glared. “And what if I don’t want to?” The mediator sent her a surprised look of anger.

“Don’t play games with me, salt lick, you’re hardly worth my time. Summon your weapon. Now.”

Pearl sighed and looked to her feet. It didn’t seem like she had a choice. With concentration her gem began to shine and the hilt of her spear appeared. The mediator pulled her spear out from her gem forcibly, which strangely hurt a bit. The crowd gasped.

“That’s right, folks! A real weapon! That’s sure to make any ordinary pearl cower in fear, and sure to win you a million pots!” The crowd began to shout and again the fistfuls of cash shot into the air. “Alright, alright! Let’s start the bidding now. Starting price is-“

Pearl tuned the woman out as she scanned the crowd, eyes wide. She was nervous. She had no idea what was going on. She didn’t know who these gems were. She feared whoever bought her out.

“And SOLD, to the lovely gem in the black hat!”

Pearl’s vision zoomed to the winner, and subsequently, her new owner. “Hematite, dear!” She called with a grin that Pearl swore bared fangs. The woman stepped around all the other gems who were angrily calling out slurs out of bitterness for losing the auction. Apparently, Pearl was expensive.

The sound of Hematite’s knee high black boots hitting the stage floor struck fear in Pearl’s heart. She bit her lip and stared at her own feet. The boots soon stepped in front of her small slippers. She shot upward and stared straight into Hematite’s eyes. The crowd’s noise fell to a murmur. “Hello, Pearl.” Her voice was low but with a lilt that sounded downright insane.

“I’ll be your new owner. I’m excited to work with you.” Hematite did have fangs, Pearl noticed. There was also a strange sensation that made Pearl feel as though she had no choice but to look at her and ignore everything else. It was uncomfortable and scary. Hematite’s grin grew into a nasty toothy smirk. “You’re going to make me _a lot_ of money.”

Pearl gulped. “Yes ma’am.”

Hematite stood up straight and stepped off the stage slowly and carefully, as though each of her steps were worth everyone’s time. Pearl was terrified.

“Alright, that wraps up the auction for the evening! Please do come back tomorrow night to see the newest batch of pearls ripe for your taking! Have a good night!” The auctioneer smiled wide. “New owners, please file to the room individually assigned to you and your new pearl for initiation and programming. An associate will walk you through the process.”

The words were all jumbled up in Pearl’s mind. None of them made any sense. One of the ‘associates’ slashed the ties that held her hands behind her back and placed new, heavy shackles over them after she was forced to stand. She was pushed off the stage and into a room labeled “E”. She had no discernable thoughts in her brain. She felt numb.

The door swung open and there was Hematite, leaning against a counter with a long, black cigarette holder poised between her lips. She blew the smoke out her mouth slowly. “Hello, Pearl.” She shivered. Her name suddenly felt dirty. “Let’s do this quickly, I have appointments to see to this evening.”

“As you wish,” the associate said, and she pulled a holographic clipboard up in front of her. “This Pearl has the identification code B27A20. Her serial number is 4918853285-P. I will begin the programming now.” Hematite nodded to tell her to continue.

“Pearl B27A20, serial number 4918853285-P, repetition of identification and serial number requested.”

“My name is Pearl B27A20,” Pearl began, her voice the same flat tone as it was the last time she had gone forcibly into autopilot, “My serial number is 4918853285-P.”

“Pearl B27A20 identification complete. Requesting allegiance report.”

Pearl’s mind went completely blank and it felt as though she was speaking another language. She was completely out of control. **“No allegiance detected. Would you like to update allegiance information?”** Her eyes glossed over. She had no thoughts, only instinct.

“Yes. Allegiance update requested: new ownership request. Stand-by for programming by new ownership.” The gem offered the clipboard to Hematite, but she waved it off.

“I know what I’m doing. Pearl B27A20, serial number 4918853285-P, update allegiance to Hematite please.”

 **“Hematite registered. Do you have an identification code?”** Even though she was unable to hold her own thoughts, her body knew that Pearl was afraid. It shook and sweated.

“Register Hematite identification code 9374H18.” Hematite began to smile. She was nearly finished.

**“Allegiance update complete. New allegiance registered to: Hematite 9374H18. Is this correct?”**

“Oh yes.” Hematite said. “Perfectly.”

 **“Allegiance registration confirmed.”** Pearl blinked rapidly and gasped as she regained control of her mind and speech. “What... what was that?” She asked, staring into Hematite’s eyes as her mind was pulled to do.

“Nothing my dear, just updating your coding.” Hematite smiled sweetly but Pearl knew she was anything but. “Please remove your shackles, Pearl.”

Pearl moved to do so, but found the metal to be unrelenting. She shot Hematite a confused glance. The associate went to remove them herself, but Hematite put up a hand to stop her. “Pearl,” her eyes jumped to Hematite’s by new instinct. “Please remove your shackles.”

Without thinking and without a chance to object Pearl began to fight to remove her shackles. Pearl’s eyes widened in fear and pain as the metal began to cut into her wrists. She fought to stop it but found that she couldn’t find the motivation. She couldn’t explain it, but she was thoroughly compelled to complete Hematite’s request despite how impossible it was. She panicked.

“Hematite, please, I can’t!” She pleaded, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Hematite grinned and laughed quietly. She stared as Pearl shed tears of pain and continuously bit searing cuts into her wrists and arms while trying to remove herself from her cuffs. She allowed it to continue for several agonizing and slow seconds.

“Pearl, you are relieved of your order.” Pearl’s arms fell as dead weight behind her and she fell to her knees, panting and trembling violently. She felt blood trickle down her arms and pool onto the floor. She shut her eyes and fought to stop the tears. _‘I can be stronger than her! I can do this!’_ Despite what she wanted to think, though, Pearl knew in her heart she would not be able to resist orders like this one. It was a lost cause.

Hematite pulled her from her thoughts by gripping her chin and tilting her head up to meet her gaze again. “You can see now, dear, that there is nothing that I can’t order you to do. You can see that you are compelled to obey even when an order is futile. This is your fate, Pearl.” Hematite’s face looked grim. “You are married to a life of slavery. You have no choice, you never had one.”

Pearl winced; her arms stung. “I’ll be honest with you Pearl, I am going to use you as a pawn. I am going to put you into pits to fight other gems like yourself, who are deemed unfit for commercial use. You will be ordered to fight and you will fight until you win, or are incapacitated, or die. This is the only life you will ever know, dear. This is the way of the world. I am simply upholding my end of the burden in keeping the natural order in line.

“It will be difficult, no doubt. There are no excuses, no pardons or favors, and you will fight to your best ability, because I will order you to do so if you do not do so willingly. It will be easier for you to obey what I ask of you, though. You’re going to become my greatest asset Pearl, your spear will give you many advantages in your fights, and I am going to make you an underground star.

“You signed away your life the moment you were conceived, and you must live with that forever. I won’t let you forget that you belong entirely to me. Do you understand me, Pearl?”

Pearl had listened carefully to everything Hematite had to say. She had watched as the large black feather sticking from her black velvet hat bobbed gently while she spoke. She had accepted her words as truth because she had no other choice. “I understand you, Hematite.”

She grinned. “Please, use my formal title.”

Pearl looked down in painful submission. “I understand, my lady.”

Her blood still dripped from her fingertips.

 


	4. Iolite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl is led to her home for the first time and meets a new friend. What does Hematite have in store for her in the rings?

Pearl never stopped staring at her feet as she trudged behind her new madam. It was dark and there was a wind howling menacingly through the tall, run down buildings and their broken windows. There was an underlying sound like scrambling and yowling and distant gems fighting. Everything felt unpleasant. Pearl stepped over small bits of glass. She had no idea where she was.

As if she could read her mind, Madam Hematite spoke. “We are going to the household now, my pearl.”

Pearl raised her eyes a bit. “The household…?” She felt very small. Her view was only of Hematite’s intimidating figure from the back. She seemed several feet taller and while dressed in all black, she looked like a silhouette.

“It’s where you all live dear! They really don’t teach you pesky things anything in the factories, do they?” Hematite made a light huffing sound and a large plume of smoke billowed from her mouth. “My last pearl knew a lot more than you do when I first bought her. I guess you were rejected early in the refinement process.”

Pearl gulped. There had been a pearl before her? She wondered what had happened to her. She rubbed at her raw wrists and picked at some of the dried blood that had stuck in rivers on her forearm as she walked. Madam Hematite had been so kind as to remove her shackles, to ‘prevent sullying my reputation!’ she had said. Surprisingly, towing a gem around the back lots of the city with cuffs on looked pretty bad. Pearl rolled her eyes.

“Ah yes, here we are!” Madam exclaimed, throwing her arms out wide in a dramatic gesture that failed to improve how dingy and broken down the building looked. Pearl grimaced a bit. “Come, come. We need to wash you up.” Hematite sent Pearl a flashy fanged grin, and she nodded with the biggest smile she could muster despite her unease.

Hematite pushed the door open with a creak that threatened to knock the whole building down. Pearl scoffed as she stepped over the muddied concrete into the “household”. Papers were strewn all over the floor with dirt tracked over them. She took in the moldy walls with an air of disgust and disdain. She felt an unexplainably strong urge to clean everything.

“Let’s go, this is just the lobby,” Hematite said, rushing forward. She held her skirt up to avoid the filth. Pearl stepped carefully behind. “This is it!” Hematite put a hand over a small circular pad on the wall next to the door. A green light scanned her hand and gave a nice dinging sound. The door popped open just a crack and Hematite swung it open, gesturing for Pearl to step inside.

Pearl hesitated, and then stepped into the dark room. Hematite followed and shut the door behind them. For a moment they were both bathed in darkness while she found the lights, and they flickered on slowly after she pressed a few buttons on a control pad in the doorway.

Pearl blinked and scanned the room. It didn’t look much better than the rest of the building, and was very small. There was a hatch on the floor, which Hematite reached for and pulled up with some forcing. The hatch revealed steps going down to an even darker room. She heard the sound of something dripping. “Well?” Hematite snapped, breaking Pearl’s train of thought. “On you go, down.”

Pearl shook her head clear and stepped down slowly and cautiously. She gripped at the wall to the right of her and her hand landed in something sticky. She shuddered.

The steps ended and Pearl was left standing in the middle of darkness again without any sense of direction. Hematite stepped down to meet her and turned on another set of lights. Only half of them worked.

Pearl bit back a gasp in disgust. She hadn’t thought it could be dirtier than it was up above, but she was proven wrong. The air smelled thick with something rotten and she brought her arm to her nose to shield it, though it made no difference. There were splotches of unidentified fluids and sticky substances all over the floors and walls. Most disturbing, however, were the numerous sets of tall bars that closed off small rooms, still shrouded in darkness since there were no lights inside of them.

She paled when she realized they looked like cells. She swung her head back to Hematite in panic, only to be met by that fanged grin that spelled trouble. “Come Pearl, you need to be rinsed off first.” Pearl’s eyes were wide and followed her Madam as she stepped passed her and beckoned for her to follow again. She looked down at her feet and tiptoed behind Hematite with tears threatening to fall.

“H-heh…” Pearl gasped in surprise and jumped back. From one of the barred cells a small hand was reaching out. Its nails were chipped and bleeding green. She could make out one wild eye behind a lot of matted hair. The creature’s throat was cracking as though she was struggling to speak. “H… Hello.” The creature’s eye widened and a huge demented smile of triumph spread over its face. Pearl covered her eyes and stepped quickly away to catch up with Hematite. She was struggling to contain her horror and breathe evenly. Her owner kept pace as though nothing had happened.

“In, darling.” Hematite grabbed a fistful of Pearl’s clothing and pulled her into a dingy stall, effectively throwing her to the ground. Pearl’s breath hitched and she held her arms to her chest, which were still very sore.

“What are you-“ Pearl was cut off as a forceful spray of water hit her face. She coughed and put her arms up to shield her face while she cleared her throat.

“You stink of the factories. It’ll be just a moment then you’ll be all done.” Pearl looked up to find Hematite but couldn’t see through the water hitting her. It was extremely cold and stung like small pins over her skin. The only positive was the soothing effect the cold had on her torn wrists.

The water cut off shortly after that. Pearl shivered violently, her teeth clattering noisily despite her best efforts to stop it. “T-thank you, Madam.” She said. She looked up at Hematite’s shadowy face. “I am all clean now.”

“Lovely!” Hematite clapped her hands together. Pearl flinched. “Let’s go, your room is waiting!” Hematite’s sharply manicured nails scraped her chest while grabbing at her shirt and yanking her up to her feet. Pearl’s legs were shaking from the cold just as violently as her teeth were.

Hematite led Pearl to her cell and opened the bars with a few presses of several unique buttons. She pushed Pearl inside and quickly locked the door back up. Pearl landed on her bottom and stayed there. She rubbed her arms furiously in an attempt to create warmth.

“Goodnight my darling. You’ll begin fighting tomorrow, I think. I’m so excited for you!” Hematite smiled and turned curtly back to the steps to the outside world. “Take care, my pearl! You’ll be making me money soon enough!” She laughed airily. Pearl heard her heels click up the stairs and then the snapping sound of the hatch closing, then silence. The lights flickered out.

Pearl could hear only a handful of sounds: the soft drip of leftover water in the hoses down the hall, her own slightly raspy breathing, and what sounded like nails tapping concrete. She held her eyes open and waited for the blackness all around her to take shape as they adjusted. A part of her hoped that the blackness meant it was all a dream, and that she would wake up warm and happy someplace else. With a frown those hopes broke and she began to make out basic shapes. A loud _thump_ came from directly in front of her without warning, and she gasped.

“Who are you? Who’s there?” She asked, attempting to sound more confident. She heard what sounded like the slapping of hands and feet against the cool ground for a few strides. The strides then stopped with the sound of hands clenching over bars. _‘Another property of Hematite’s,’_ Pearl thought.

“That depends,” a voice called out, “who are you?” The voice was a lower pitch than Pearl’s and spoke slowly, without definite inflection.

“I-I,” Pearl cleared her throat and composed herself. “I am Pearl. I assume you are also Hematite’s?”

“Afraid so.” The voice yawned noisily.

A heavy silence fell between them. Between the bars Pearl could make out light colored hair that sprout in all directions from the other gem’s head. She noticed a gem was located on the back of her hand. “Oh, please excuse my rudeness,” Pearl said with nervous urgency, “what did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t say anything, but my name’s Iolite.” She answered plainly. Found light glinted off the face of her gem in a soft flash. She removed her hands from the bars and sat back in a relaxed position. “Are you fresh?”

“Excuse me?” Pearl asked. Iolite chuckled.

“Are you new, were you ‘just born’?” Iolite reworded, “you were factory-made, right?”

“Oh, well, yes.” Pearl replied. She felt a little awkward trying to converse with Iolite. It seemed as though she wanted to skip formalities, but Pearl passively refused. She enjoyed the way politeness sounded, decidedly. “I was rejected, though.”

Iolite sounded intrigued. “Rejected?” She made a small ‘huh’ sound. “What for?”

“I believe my summon was incorrect. Supposedly, I was supposed to summon a flag.” Pearl looked down in disdain. She was rather ashamed of her defect. “Pearls are intended to serve a master, right? So, how is it that I can’t even do that?”

“Hey, cut with the heavy stuff. We just met,” Iolite smirked. “The truth is Pearl, Homeworld is a confusing place.” Pearl folded her arms over her knees and settled into comfortable curl.

“They have standards that don’t make sense to anyone who really thinks about them. Unfortunately, that’s why I’m stuck down here with you. No offense, though.” Pearl was unfazed. She wanted to learn more.

“Anyway, Homeworld really likes everything to be the same. That hits you, and others like you, the hardest, because you’re ‘products’. Again, no offense.”

“None taken,” Pearl said, though she was getting irritated at Iolite’s apparent stalling. “So then why was my summon bad? I would think a spear would be quite useful, actually.”

Iolite jumped a bit. “An actual weapon? No way, that’s amazing! No wonder they rejected you, a spear!” Iolite laughed heartily, seeming much more animated than before. “Oh man, you’re gonna be a horror in the rings! I wonder what stage name you’ll get. Can’t imagine what their faces would be like when they see a real, actual weapon come from your gem! Priceless.” She continued to laugh.

“I don’t see what’s so funny, Iolite,” Pearl said curtly, “Rejection is not a laughing matter.” She pursed her lips to contain her anger.

“Oh no, not at all, I’m sorry,” Iolite said as she wound down. “It’s not funny. It’s awful, actually. I just think it’ll be a riot to see everyone freak out in the rings though! Don’t you think?”

Pearl sighed heavily. “I suppose.” Silence hit again. Pearl felt a twang of pain in her wrists where the skin was rubbed raw. She pulled her knees up closer to her face and stared at a small sliver of light that was glowing in the middle of the concrete walkway, between herself and Iolite.

“Hey,” Iolite said in a quieter tone, “it’ll be fine. Hematite isn’t that bad compared to some of the others.”

“What happens in the ring?” She asked suddenly.

“You fight other gems, didn’t someone explain this?” Pearl shook her head.

“No, I mean what really goes on. I know we fight. I have no idea why, or how.”

Iolite seemed to be thinking. Pearl’s eyes had adjusted as well as they were going to, and she could make out basic expressions and features of Iolite’s face and body. She was stout and had much thicker limbs than her, which made Pearl feel like maybe she was rather small compared to most.

“You, well… The rich gems, the ones who own us, they set up the fights, you know. They try to match us up so they’ll win, because they bet on the winner. It’s like a big game. It’s pretty noisy but once you start fighting you kinda forget about everything else around you. It’s just you, and them, the two of you pitted to fight until the other… You know. This is a little weird to talk about, it’s easier to just try to forget about it.” Iolite waved her gem hand off. “ I don’t like thinking about the things I gotta do in there.”

Pearl shivered. “You mean, fight someone? You don’t need to _kill_ , do you? I mean, not really, right?”

Iolite froze and shifted with unease. “Well, sometimes… Sometimes yeah, we have to kill. It’s just what we have to do.”

“Well, not really, our bodies can retreat to our gems correct?” Pearl began to sweat as anxiety swelled in her chest. “The gems at the factory, that’s what they taught me, we can just abandon our bodies if they become too injured! No harm done, right?” Pearl’s voice broke with the question.

“I’m sorry Pearl. It depends on the fighter,” Iolite looked away, “but not all the time. Sometimes we need to really kill, by breaking the gem. We die if our gems get cracked or broken like that. Sometimes the fighters like that kind of a show. Hematite likes to avoid them though, because she can’t make money off a dead gem.”

Pearl had raised a hand to her mouth in shock as she let Iolite’s words sink in. “No… And I’m supposed to…” She began to tremble again. “They can’t do this!” Her thoughts raced and flooded her ears as though they were shouting in them.

Iolite sighed and grabbed Pearl’s attention again. “I’m sorry, Pearl.” She repeated. “It’s just what we gotta do sometimes. To survive and stuff. I’m not saying I’m proud of it.” She raised a hand to her heart. “I’ve had to do a lot of things I’m not proud of since Hematite took me.”

Pearl listened closely to Iolite’s words, searching for anything that might allow her to cling to hope. “I messed up. I guess I should be thankful to Hematite in a way,” Iolite laughed dryly, “I was supposed to get ground up for treason, but she smuggled me out. She never told me what I was going to be doing, though. I just got thrown in here and left to figure everything out.

“You must be scared; I remember feeling scared. I had someone to help me understand though, she…” Iolite trailed and her face looked pained for a moment. “Well, I can help you now. I can show you how to survive in this hell.”

“I…” Pearl began, but she choked on the syllable. She had brought her hands together, cupped at her chest, and started to cry. A few tears dropped into her hands and arms and once again she was reminded her loudly of the injuries caused by her own body’s volition. Her blurry vision darted to her wrists and she felt the salt sting on her skin.

“Hey, stop.” Iolite spoke quietly. Pearl shot her eyes back up and into Iolite’s, whose gaze looked lifeless. She made no effort to stop her tears. Memories of Hematite’s words attacked her all at once. She felt like she couldn’t breathe again.

_‘This is the only life you will ever know, dear.’_ It couldn’t be true, Pearl had hoped. At least being a standing servant would be better than this. Organizing files sounded more and more pleasant as time went on.

“Pearl!” Barked Iolite, snapping Pearl back to the present. “Stop that. There is nothing you can do now. You need to calm down. Crying, and freaking out, all of that is pointless. You’re still going to be down in this jail at the end of the day.”

Pearl furrowed her brow. “I refuse to accept this as my fate.” She spoke through tears.

Iolite shrugged. “Then go for it. When you’re done feeling sorry for yourself, let me know.” She stood and walked out of view, behind the thick cold walls that enclosed her barred door. Pearl reached out through her own bars in a sad attempt to call her back, but Iolite couldn’t see. She was out of view.

Pearl slowly pulled her arm back through the bars and held it tight to her chest. She sniffed and blinked rapidly to stop her crying, but the tears wouldn’t stop. Without Iolite on the other side, she suddenly felt so much more alone. There was nothing to see but shadows. A small cracking sound bubbled from her throat while she tried to breathe through the tears. The sound of her own voice breaking only encouraged sharp sobs to rip through her body. She squeezed her shoulders and rocked back and forth while trying to control it, but knew that deep inside she didn’t really want to stop crying. What was the point?

After many long minutes or hours without any way to truly count them, her eyes grew too sore to produce more tears. She had lain on her side and curled her knees into her chest at some point, but she didn’t know when. Her breathing evened out. Pearl considered what Iolite had said. There really wasn’t a point to crying, either.

She sat in silence for a long time without really thinking about anything. She felt incredibly numb, and tired. The sliver of light she had been eyeing in the middle of the floor disappeared to make way for a blanket of light to cover her cell without her noticing for a while. When she did notice, she was only disappointed to see that everything was still in greyscale, like it was when the lights were on last night.

Her eyes felt puffy and blinked slowly. “Iolite?” She called out of her cell. Her voice sounded hoarse and she winced at the pathetic sound.

Even though she had called Pearl was still surprised to hear the sound of bare feet stepping over the floors. Iolite came into view then, and Pearl was able to see her colors. Her hair was a light blue and stuck out in wild directions, but she also had a few small braids pulled over her shoulder. Her clothing was purple with small accents of white and blue. Her skin was a deep royal purple. She looked full of pity and Pearl shrunk away from her.

“Morning, Pearl. Done crying yet?” She asked. She looked irritated. “I was getting pretty sick of your whimpering over here. For someone with a pretty voice you sure make an ugly cry.” She smirked. Pearl noticed she had a pronounced lower lip. It complemented her round face.

“I’m sorry,” she began, but Iolite waved her off.

“It’s fine. I understand.” Pearl swallowed past the thick lump still in her throat, but before she could reply, the sound of a distant door opening startled them both. “That’s Hematite. She may be putting you out early.” Iolite looked nervous.

“What, really? I-“ Iolite hushed her loudly and put a finger to her lips while pointing toward the steps. Pearl looked and in perfect timing the hatch for the staircase was slid open by Hematite.

“Pearl, my darling!” Hematite sang, a trill in her voice, “It’s time for your debut! Oh I can hardly wait, I have the fight all picked out for you.” Pearl hastily stood and straightened herself. She was following Iolite, who was standing up in front of the bars of her cell looking straight ahead with her posture stiff. It looked strange on her, judging from all Pearl had learned in the short conversation they’d already had.

She jumped when Hematite came into view. “Ah Pearl, you look beautiful! If not a bit, well, disheveled, but that’s not a problem. We’ll get you fixed up in no time!”

A wave of gentle wind blew away from Pearl as her door swung open per Hematite’s request. She felt so exposed. She wondered why Hematite was simply staring at her, and then realized she had extended a hand. She hesitated, then put her hand in Hematite’s gloved one. Hematite pulled her from her cell and back toward the stairs.

Her madam was rambling about what Pearl was going to be doing in a few minutes as they walked, but all Pearl could pay attention to was Iolite’s painfully anxious expression. Before she fell out of view, Iolite gave her a nod of good luck, which she returned. Pearl felt slightly less nervous with her blessing.

“One more thing dear, I need to travel lightly.” Hematite turned back to Pearl with a grin that turned Pearl’s stomach. “I hope you don’t mind, it will only be for an hour or so.”

From her handbag Hematite pulled out a pronged instrument that Pearl didn’t recognize. She looked to Hematite, confused, but was suddenly hit full force in the stomach with pain.

She cried out and looked down. The tool that Hematite had pulled was stabbed into her torso and was shooting sharp electrical currents down her entire body. She screeched and looked to Hematite desperately for answers but received nothing but the grin in response. It looked so sickeningly sweet.

Pearl looked at her arms and noticed the currents slowly breaking apart her body. She was horrified. When the currents finally seemed to hit her heart, she felt something crack inside her, and everything snapped to black.

 

* * *

 

The next thing Pearl knew, she felt warmth growing from her chest and stretching to the tips of each finger and toe. A splash of bright white light dazed her and she blinked her eyes clear.

Noise attacked her ears without any reason. Many different voices, twenty, fifty or more, all yelled over each other from above. She looked up and saw that she was in a circular ditch about the size of two of her cells. It was enough space to move around but not enough to run. There was a metal fencing around the top of the ring that prevented the strangers from leaning too far over and into the pit.

Pearl then looked around her in a complete circle. She was in the center of the pit. It didn’t seem as though anyone else was there with her. She felt slight relief ease her panic at that thought, but it didn’t last long.

From the sand several feet to her right raised a small orange gem. The white outline of a body burst into view, and from the outline formed the true body and clothing of a short, shivering gem no taller than Pearl’s shoulder height. She looked around quickly, then locked her eyes on Pearl. Her eyes spelled murder.

Pearl gasped and backed away. “Look, I am not interested in fighting you, let’s try to get out of this mess, together!” She said, sweating nervously. The muffled sound of an announcer spoke overhead and quieted the gems above.

“Last call for any bets ends now! To the left we have Madam Hematite’s fresh meat, Pearl! Give it up, everybody!” The crowd catcalled and booed until there was no discernable opinion to deduce. “To the right, we have Miss Tanzanite’s new arrival, Citrine!” Again, the crowd roared with a mix of approval and disdain.

“Two newbies up for their first impression in the rings. Who takes the win? Gems get ready,” Citrine crouched low to the ground with her arms outstretched. Her nails were filed into claws. “Set,” the announcer said, and Pearl took a step back when Citrine growled.

“Fight!”

 

 


	5. Citrine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thrown into the ring in a sudden fight for her life, Pearl is scared and hesitant to fight back, but does she have a choice anymore? It's never been her choice to make.

A huge surge of loud cheering complemented the powerful kick of Citrine’s legs as she launched herself straight at Pearl. “No, wait!” Pearl put her hands out but dodged at the last moment when the other gem’s claws came dangerously close to her. “Please, let’s think rationally about this!” She said with a nervous smile, raising her shoulders and avoiding Citrine’s swipes carefully. 

“I’m not allowed to think rationally!” Citrine yelled, slashing wildly in front of her without really aiming for Pearl at all. Her eyes were fiery red. 

“I uh, sure you are! Citrine, was it?” Pearl ducked and made a large jump to her left. “Citrine, we could both stop now and they would all be without entertainment. I’m sure they would just call the whole thing off!” She yelped as she twisted a muscle in her torso while twirling to avoid a hit. She scolded herself, she was being much too careless. 

“You must not get it.” Citrine said, her voice lowered. “We don’t get a choice in here. I didn’t get a choice. I was ordered to fight you until you were down. If I don’t do that… Well, I don’t have that luxury!” She grappled for Pearl’s chest and managed to slice a small tear into her clothing. 

Pearl bit her lip and fell back; she was running out of non-violent options. Citrine panted heavily and curled her hunched shoulders. “What happened to you?” She asked softly.

Citrine all but roared- she looked at Pearl with an intense gaze that made her look away. “I was cracked!” She pulled up her shirt to reveal a circular gem with a neat fissure straight through the middle. “I was sent to the factories to be ground up, next to disgraces like you,” she sneered, and Pearl doubled back. “But some supervisor thought they’d bend a few rules and get some cash out of me, so here I am sold into some disturbing form of slavery! They’ll just grind me up if I don’t obey, so what choice do I have?”

Citrine shot forward, claws outstretched, and scraped a deep gash into Pearl’s arm after she was too slow to dodge completely. She gasped and held her hand to the wound. “Look, I can see that you’re, well, angry with all of this,” Pearl stopped when Citrine barked out a tired laugh. 

“Oh yes, I’m very angry.” She took a dive into a roll across the ring straight at Pearl, who easily dodged by jumping gracefully to the left. “Sit still!” She fumed. “I need to win this!”

“Citrine, listen to me, we don’t have to fight!” Pearl said, feeling a bit more desperate by the minute. She wouldn’t have the energy to keep dodging forever, and she didn’t seem interested in stopping the fight. 

“Yes, we do!” Citrine yelled. “Fight back, you coward!” Pearl glared. She was not a coward.

It didn’t seem like she had much of a choice anymore, despite how much she wanted one. Pearl looked down in disdain for a moment, before bright light washed out her vision as it came from her gem. She reached up to the light and grabbed hold of the end of her spear and pulled it out slowly. When the light faded, her spear was clearly visible by the crowd. A new wave of yells erupted as everyone panicked excitedly. Citrine showed a flash of doubt and fear before lowering into a defensive stance. Pearl could faintly hear the announcer say that no new bets could be placed.

“I don’t want to fight,” Pearl warned, spreading her feet for balance. 

“Bring it on,” Citrine said quietly. She charged once again. 

Pearl, now armed, deflected each of Citrine’s swipes and attacks with her spear’s shaft. She idly noticed a new trail of blood slide down her shoulder from the cut Citrine had gotten in earlier in the fight. Citrine’s barrage only grew stronger with each blow, and Pearl felt a growing sense of dread settle in her stomach. ‘I’m going to have to hurt her,’ she thought. ‘She won’t stop.’

“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” Pearl heard the stands chant. She nodded with steely resolve. She had no choice. 

Citrine had fallen back after several unsuccessful attacks and was preparing to charge Pearl again. This seemed to be her main strategy- hit, fall back, and repeat. Pearl locked eyes with her and saw her rage. She felt a deep sense of sadness. Citrine yelled and jumped forward, running full speed at Pearl, and just before she could reach Pearl’s chest with her claws, Pearl sunk her spear deep into her left thigh. 

Citrine screamed. A spray of orange blood burst from the stab wound and peppered Pearl’s arms and clothing. Pearl gasped and resisted the urge to gag at the sight. She yanked back with her spear and removed it from Citrine’s thigh, which caused another smaller spattering of her bright orange blood. 

‘I can’t do this, this is too much,’ she thought in a panic, freezing up. ‘This is wrong, I can’t…’ Her focus snapped back to Citrine just in time to see the orange gem tackle her to the ground. Pearl hit the ground behind her with a hard thump and blinked away stars. 

Citrine had her straddled and her still bleeding thigh was quivering. Pearl looked up to the sky to see Citrine’s forever-angry eyes well up with tears. She wasn’t sure if they were tears of pain or something else, but she desperately hoped it was the pain. She couldn’t handle humanizing her now.

Citrine’s sharp claws came down in vicious swipes at Pearl’s face and chest. Her skin was sliced several times with each clawing. She held her arms up in defense but Citrine’s claws only managed to cover them with deep scratches as well. Pearl yelped as the pain multiplied with each attack. 

“Stop!” She yelled, but it obviously had no effect. Pearl was beginning to truly panic- the cuts were getting deeper, and Citrine was only getting angrier. Citrine pulled her arm far back and held her fingers together to form one streamlined point, and she plunged her hand’s claws into Pearl’s shoulder. Pearl cried out in pain and felt her own eyes begin to tear up. 

Acting purely on impulse, Pearl thought of a quick solution to get herself free from Citrine’s hold on the ground. She lit up her gem and summoned the hilt of her spear, and, grabbing it by both hands, brought it up as hard as she could into Citrine’s forehead. Citrine howled and put her hands to her face- the bridge of her nose had been broken. She lost concentration enough for Pearl to push herself up and out from under her legs, and Pearl completed the summoning by pulling the entire spear out with a wide slash. She accidentally made a small cut across her own forehead from the force of the swipe and lack of control. 

Citrine backed up on her hands and feet with one hand still pressed to her broken face. Fear shone through and no longer was the look of rage swirling in her eyes. Pearl fought down the feelings of guilt and relentlessly attacked, the blade of her spear cutting into Citrine in all different places as she crawled backwards away. “Please stop,” Citrine whispered, and Pearl hesitated for a moment. Citrine was staring up at her with childlike terror and vulnerability. 

Pearl closed her eyes and turned her head away. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly, and she slashed Citrine’s neck. Blood sprayed for only a second before Citrine puffed into a cloud of orange smoke, and her cracked gem plunked onto the earth beneath where she once sat. It was over.

Pearl fell to her knees and held her arms close to her chest. Her hands gripped her upper arms tightly, threatening to bruise them. Pearl looked down at the orange blood mixing with her teal blood on her forearms as it dripped from the thin slices on her face. A stream of it fell into her eye and she winced. 

Pearl realized she had been tuning out the sound around her when the elated screaming of the crowd suddenly assaulted her ears. They all loved it, even the ones who had bet against her. She scanned the gems quickly and found Madam Hematite, who was sending her a warm smile beneath her huge black hat that almost emanated pride. Pearl grimaced in disgust. This was nothing to be proud of. 

“Congratulations Pearl of Madam Hematite!” The announcer shouted, but Pearl didn’t think anyone in the crowd was actually listening anymore. “Please allow personnel to lead you to the winner’s circle!” 

She looked to the entrance she came from and saw the door pop open and let in two gems in identical plain uniforms. Their expressions were exceptionally blank. Pearl’s numbness left her without any protest or words as they gripped her by the arms and pulled her out of the ring. The sound of the gems yelling and hollering quieted as she walked away and was shut out completely once the doors shifted closed. She flinched at the sound of the doors clicking shut. 

Pearl heard clapping and watched a shadow step into the light with a smile to match. She was a sickening hot pink color from head to toe. “Congratulations, Pearl!” She smiled warmly. Even her skin had a slight pink tinge. “You’ve just won your first fight in the rings. How does it feel?” 

Pearl stared and said nothing until one of the gems holding her by the arm shoved her in the side. She stifled a pained sound. “A-ah, well, it wasn’t easy.” She stammered.

“You made it look easy!” The pink gem gushed. Pearl blushed and looked down. Despite the horrible thing she was being complimented for, it was still flattery. 

“Thanks.” 

The pink gem clapped her hands together suddenly and Pearl fought not to flinch again. “Ah, that’s right, to the winner’s circle with you! I think we’ll be seeing a lot of you around here, Pearl,” she said with a wink. Pearl nodded slowly. 

The two gems yanked her forward and toward a new set of doors that seemed to lead to another pit like the one she’d just fought in. They stepped through and were bombarded with exceptionally bright lights shining down specifically at them. Pearl realized they were under spotlights. She shook off the two gems in annoyance. She felt a strange, sickening sense of power within her that made her want to step proudly toward the stands that held several other winning gems. 

The winners were lined up on a stage at attention. Some of them were so woozy from loss of blood that they were swaying slightly, and others looked to be without a scratch. She recognized a few to also be pearls. They looked so stoic and unfeeling, which unsettled her. One of them had bright red blood on her that was clearly not her own. She shoved down her fears and stepped proudly onto the stand. If she wasn’t going to have a choice in these fights, she may as well stand up straight, as a winner. 

The crowd of gems above was screaming as each gem was announced as a winner. The doors to the side slid open to reveal several gems that looked to be of higher status than the fighters. Among them was Hematite, and Pearl put it together; these were all the owners of the winning gems. Hematite stepped to the front of the stage to the side of Pearl. “Congratulations,” she said in her cool voice, “you’ve done well. Welcome to the winner’s circle, dear.” She smirked and revealed one sharp fang. 

Pearl crossed her eyebrows and looked straight ahead. She felt morally compromised for her decision to fight and defeat Citrine, but recognized that she had no other choice but to do so. She knew that she hated how it felt. However, a tiny part of her mind told her that she had enjoyed the combat. She shook it away and tried not to think about it. She would talk to Iolite about it later.

Pearl lit up at the thought of talking to Iolite again. Despite hardly knowing her, she looked forward to a friendly face. She was a bit callous, but Pearl wondered if maybe that was a good thing. So far, being a mindless drone hadn’t worked out for her too well, despite being her intended purpose. 

Half of the lights turned off and Hematite turned back with a hand held out for Pearl to take. Despite the disgust she felt at the contact, Pearl took it, and was aided in her step down from the stand. “How do you feel?” Hematite asked, but Pearl knew the question was anything but sincere. She gave a neutral answer, and followed the Madam out of the ring, then out of the building. 

They walked silently back to the household. Pearl sidestepped around various shards of glass in the alleyways, as was routine. She wondered if there was any redeemable part of this city to be found, which led to daydreaming of a city untarnished by illegal activities and nasty dark alleys, with bright lights and theatre and music on the streets. It was a romantic thought. 

They walked single-file down the steps and into Pearl’s cage. She stood at attention against the bars while Hematite locked up the door. “Congratulations again, my pearl,” Hematite said in her sickeningly sweet voice, ”you’ve done very well.” She caressed Pearl’s cheek with her hand for a moment before stepping away and leaving her in the dark. Pearl smiled though, because across from her was Iolite, standing a full foot shorter at attention. Iolite returned the smile. 

“Wow Pearl, you look rough,” Iolite said as she plopped down to sit with her legs crossed in front of her door. “Like you fought with a pair of scissors.”

“I basically did, to be honest,” Pearl said, and they laughed together. She sat neatly on her knees and smoothed the wrinkles in her clothes. “Did you fight today?” She asked. 

“Nah, no room in the brackets for me today. Besides, I haven’t fought a lot lately.” Pearl sighed in relief, and then brought her hand to her chin in contemplation.

“Why do you think that would be?” She asked. Iolite shrugged. They dropped the subject. Pearl took a minute to inspect her arms and face and rub the caked blood from her skin. She grew pale when she thought about where the orange blood had come from. ‘Citrine.’ Iolite must have sensed her discomfort.

“Hey, Pearl, it’s alright. It’s not your fault you had to fight today.” She said, worry in her face. “She’s probably fine.” Pearl nodded slightly. 

“I hope so. I don’t like this,” she said, uncomfortable with the crack that broke her sentence. She didn’t want to cry.

“Nobody does, unless they’re nuts anyway.” Iolite muttered. Her expression softened when she saw Pearl’s eyes watering. “You’ll get used to it, Pearl. It’s not so bad.”

Pearl sighed. “Iolite,” she began quietly, “why are you down here with me, and other discarded gems like me? You’re not cracked or broken, and I don’t think Iolite is a mass-produced gem either, so why?” Iolite frowned.

“It’s a lame story P, you may not want to get into it. It’s pretty boring if you ask me.” Iolite said as she picked dirt from beneath her fingernails. Pearl cringed at the crude behavior. 

“I’d like to know.” Pearl said with conviction. “It’s not like I don’t have all day in here.” She grumbled. 

Iolite laughed. “True. Alright, but I’ll keep it short.” Pearl leaned forward in anticipation. “You know how I was talking about how Homeworld likes everything the same?” Pearl nodded. “Well, they like everyone to think the same too. 

“Nobody wants the gems living in the city to know what goes on in the factories. They’re a big secret that nobody thinks about. I thought that was really weird and frustrating. I wanted to know what kind of things were going on behind their gigantic walls. I was part of this little group that was about saving the environment, you know, and we all wanted to know what was in the smoke that came out. We thought it was probably something really bad for us. Little naïve me thought it might be something really cool or interesting.

“I snuck into a factory one night to get a look at the smoke stacks and how they worked. I managed to smuggle myself through the main gates and security measures and get inside. There were all these hallways everywhere, and they all walked over these massive rooms where pearls, like you, were being made.” 

Iolite shuddered. “It was strange. I caught a few glimpses of the process before I decided to move on to the stacks to check out the smoke. You were there, so you know what it’s like.” Pearl nodded solemnly in remembrance. “Sorry,” Iolite muttered quietly. 

“I made it to the smoke towers and found where they…” She swallowed hard. “I saw where the smoke comes from. How they reuse you, use the energy from the flames to fuel the factories. I was horrified.

“I wasn’t paying enough attention, and a guard found me and grabbed me before I could run away. I tried yelling at them, telling them how wrong this was, how awful they were, but it didn’t matter. I can’t really blame them, they were just doing their job.” Iolite looked far away in her thoughts. “When they brought me to a supervisor to get ground up for energy, they decided to just throw me into these pits instead. They sold me to the ring, and Hematite bought me, and here I am. I don’t think Hematite likes having me anymore though.” Iolite looked down, sullen. 

“I think she thought since I wasn’t broken or defective I would be a better fighter in the rings, but it turns out I can’t fight to save my life, almost literally.” She laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “She only uses me when there’s a weak or sick opponent that she thinks I can take out without too much difficulty. Weird, isn’t it? That even though I detest the rings and all they stand for I’m still a little bummed about my ‘owner’ not liking me?”

After a few moments of thought Iolite looked Pearl straight in the eyes, taking her aback. “Pearl, I know you’re a strong fighter, so you’re going to be fighting a lot. You can’t forget where you came from, and you can’t forget what you’re worth.” 

Pearl scowled. “Those factories are horrible, why would I want to remember them at all? Besides, I’m not worth… anything. I’m a defective Pearl with nowhere else to go.” 

“Don’t talk like that!” Iolite spat, and Pearl jumped. “Sorry, I just… I have a really strong feeling about you, Pearl. I think you’re gonna make it out of here, and when you do, you’ll have to remember where you’re from, and how far you’ve come.” Iolite’s expression softened. “You aren’t just special for your weapon, Pearl. What Homeworld calls a defect, is what some call, what I call, a spirit. Don’t let the fighting kill that.” 

Pearl nodded. “Okay,” she said softly. She rubbed remaining specks of orange blood off her thumb. “Thank you.” She said after a few moments. The exchange felt a little awkward.

Iolite blushed in embarrassment and looked away. “Don’t mention it.” Pearl smiled and watched the sun disappear.


	6. Another

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl is a curious gem, and Iolite leads her to a new passion. Meanwhile, Hematite has something special in store for her.

Pearl shivered and tried to shake some of the water from her dripping clothes. Hematite had come in the morning. Having realized she hadn’t rinsed Pearl off after a fight, she tossed her under the freezing cold shower without a word. Pearl listened for the final click of the door that signaled Hematite to be out of earshot, and when it sounded, she sat with a loud huff on the ground in a small patch of sunlight.

“Did you enjoy your bath, P?” Iolite snickered from across the room.

Pearl’s temper flared. “No, thank you. I’m freezing now!” She complained, wringing water out of her sleeves. A puddle was forming around her. Iolite only laughed harder, which made Pearl groan. Despite her show, however, Pearl desperately awaited moments like these where she almost felt like a friend.  _‘How bizarre,’_ she thought.  _‘Then again, my situation isn’t exactly nondescript.”_

“Hey,” Iolite said to break her concentration. “Wanna check out this book I found? I think Hematite left it behind by mistake. I’ve been taking a crack at it, but the language is a little above me sometimes,” she admitted sheepishly. “You might like it though. You have a fancy vocabulary.”

Pearl’s heart warmed at the compliment, but she was painfully unsure about the rest. “A book?”

“Yeah,” said Iolite, “like we used to have everywhere before all these projected clipboards showed up. I dunno about you, but to me, nothing beats that old library smell, even though I’m not much of a reader.” She sighed. “Maybe it’s nostalgia. I don’t know.” She shook her head and looked to Pearl. “So you wanna see it?”

Pearl nodded enthusiastically, and Iolite pulled the old book from a corner of her cell. She made a few test swings before throwing it underhand across the floor, and it landed with a thump in front of Pearl’s door. She looked at it for a few moments; it was peculiar, at least. It had a cover made with some form of leather, and was obviously very old. The corners were worn from use.

She reached out and picked the book up from the ground, and marveled at how heavy it was. She took a closer look at the cover and the small nicks it sustained from many years of ownership. After a full look around the outside, she opened it up to the first page.

Despite being old the pages still curled like fresh paper from the spine. It was obviously taken care of. She touched the paper and took note of how smooth it felt, but with an interesting texture that made gripping the pages easier. Pearl paused- she realized she was taking an awfully long time just looking at the thing, but it was so enticing. It felt like treasure.

“How do I use it?” She asked, flipping through a few pages. Iolite gave her a thoroughly confused look.

“Use? No, you read it. You know how to read, right?” Pearl paused. She felt a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, like shame, for not knowing what Iolite was talking about.

“Would that be what these things are all about?” She asked with a nervous laugh, pointing at complicated black markings that seemed to cover the page.

Iolite grew a wavering smile. “Well, looks like the brains can’t read.”

Pearl gulped. “I don’t know what that means!” She raised her voice. She was becoming increasingly frustrated. She sighed heavily. “I’m sorry. Please,” she tried again quietly, “tell me what that means.”

Iolite gave her a look like pity that made her stomach twist- she didn’t like feeling inadequate. “Reading is, well… See all those marks?” Pearl nodded. “They’re called letters, and um, you put a bunch of them together, and it makes words, like what we’re saying right now to each other. Reading is getting to see the words instead of only hearing them.” Iolite nodded once, feeling confident in her explanation. “I learned soon after I was born. They have lots of training and classes for it since it’s such an essential life skill, but I guess if you’re only meant to serve, it may not be necessary to ‘program in’ how to read and write.”

Pearl looked away and Iolite picked at her nails, both of them clearly uncomfortable. “You’re so smart though Pearl!” She said to try to pick Pearl back up. “I’m sure you could learn, easy.”

Pearl looked hopeful. “You think so? Would you teach me?”

Iolite looked flustered, but flattered. “Well, I guess I’m the only option, huh? I’m not a very good teacher,” she trailed off.

“That’s alright,” Pearl said, excitement palpable. “I’m sure you’ll do well. Will you please teach me?”

Iolite let out a dramatic sigh of exasperation. Pearl felt panic pick at her chest, but relaxed when she saw Iolite smile. “I guess I don’t have a choice. Imagine that! The brawns teaching the brains.”

Pearl raised an eyebrow. “Who said that you were the brawns?”

Iolite gave a huge grin and pointed to her chest. “I did, just now!” Pearl laughed quietly and Iolite joined in. Her clothes had pretty much dried from the light peering in from a small window and she was feeling more comfortable. She remembered she still had the book in her lap, and picked it back up to feel the cold leather binding again. She really liked that feeling.

“Well,” Pearl said, unsure of where to begin. “How should we do this? It won’t be easy, being across from each other at all times.” Iolite looked deep in thought as she tried thinking of a reasonable way to teach her, but Pearl’s attention was only on the markings on the page in front of her.

The way they twisted did seem to be in a pattern, that much she could see. Some marks looked exactly the same if taken apart, but they were all mixed up together in a way that was impossible to interpret without instruction. She wondered how anyone could “read” this gunk.

“I’ve got an idea, here,” Iolite said, gesturing for Pearl to toss the book back to her. Pearl felt a small inkling of sadness for having to let go of it before she gently tossed it across the hall to Iolite’s waiting hands. Iolite turned and was out of view for a few moments. Pearl began to feel incredulous.

“Iolite, what are you doing?” Said gem growled.

“I’m- just hold on P, give me a sec.” Iolite grumbled. Pearl watched her work on the mysterious project for a few more minutes before she finally turned back to face Pearl again. “I’m gonna toss the book back, okay?” Pearl nodded.

She threw and it fell squarely in front of Pearl, who snatched it with eager hands. “Look at the first page,” Iolite said, sounding nervous. Pearl popped open the book and saw that there were new marks now, but they were much sloppier and were on the page’s margins.

“Did you make these?” Pearl asked.

“Yeah, that’s one letter. That’s called an ‘A’. It sounds like this…”

 

* * *

 

The time drifted by easier while Iolite taught Pearl how to read. The back-and-forth method was slow, but effective. She was starting to get the hang of the letters and sounding out words that had been originally printed on the pages.

Pearl hungrily took in the knowledge. Learning was new and she loved it, and craved it. When the natural lights faded to night she turned on a glow from her gem so she could continue. Fights came and went, all easy, but the words were where her thoughts wandered. When she could, she would take a glance at one of the clipboards at the ring and try to decipher what it said while she fought. She decided learning was much more exhilarating than fighting.

By the time she was able to fully read sentences, Hematite had called her for a ‘special’ battle. “Oh, I think you’ll like this one, my pearl, much more interesting than those boring little fights you’ve been in so far,” Hematite said, prattling on while she unlocked Pearl’s door. “You see, the small gems’ owners don’t want to bet with me anymore, because word is getting out about your little gift.” Hematite hummed.

Pearl took a step back when the familiar clink rang from the door, allowing enough room for the door to swing inward. Whenever Hematite was picking her up, she was always looking at Iolite across the room. Held at attention she looked fiercer than she actually was after getting to know her, but Pearl could read her body language to know what Iolite was thinking. She looked unusually tense, and that made Pearl nervous. She hadn’t seen that very much before. Hematite really did have something special in mind.

“The big shots are all fighting for a slot with you now, darling! I knew you would be worth a considerable fortune.” Hematite giggled; Iolite gagged. Pearl stifled a laugh at Iolite’s drama.

She was led out of the household and received her traditional mouthing of “good luck” from Iolite before stepping out of her sight. It was already dark out, which usually meant shadier business in the rings. Pearl followed steadily behind. She knew that if she struggled, she would simply be forced into her gem like the first fight, and it was hardly worth it. This way, she still got to see other signs of life and walk free of her cage, however abysmal the scenery was.

Hematite radiated joy as she led Pearl to the proper ring- it seemed she’d been reserved for one of the larger ones. How excited Hematite was only served to make Pearl more nervous.  _“What am I up against?”_ She thought. Pearl bit her lip.

She stepped into the ring alone and was bathed in the bright spotlight, as was customary for the larger ring fights. She resisted the urge to cover her eyes, because the first time she had done so Hematite had smacked her hard for it. There had yet to be a second time and she hoped there wouldn’t be. She scanned the room, waiting for her opponent to appear. Pearl was unafraid- she had done this countless times and had no qualms defeating one more gem, but something was wrong for some reason she couldn’t decipher. That was, until her opponent appeared. 

From the sandy ground levitated a smooth, rounded gem that rose to eye level, and then glowed a bright white. Pearl shut her eyes instinctively until the light faded, and gasped. It was another pearl, with the same gem and the same eyes and the same hair color. Everything was so similar to herself. Pearl backed away one step. “No, I can not do this fight. I refuse!” She yelled to the stands, which booed in response.

The other pearl was blinking rapidly and steadying herself as she returned to her physical form. Her hair was shorter and her clothes were different in color, but even they held striking similarities to Pearl. She balked at the thought of fighting her.  _“She looks so vulnerable…”_ Pearl thought. The other gem had locked eyes with Pearl and gave away a brief look of surprise. She angrily blinked it away, and fell into a fighting stance, her arms held in front of her in what looked like a pathetic attempt at being battle-ready.

Pearl sighed and summoned her spear, which earned a scared squeak from the other pearl that gave her a knot in her stomach. This was wrong. Pearl had done an excellent job numbing herself to the fighting she had already done, but this was different. “I don’t want to fight you,” She said tentatively, attempting a gentler tone as she reached out with her empty hand. The other pearl recoiled sharply.

“Don’t come any closer!” The other gem yelled. Her voice was even similar to Pearl’s. Everything was uncanny and uncomfortable. Pearl had never truly realized how disturbing the creation of pearls was until now, when she was able to see it right in front of her. They were nearly identical, and who knew how many other nearly identical pearls were already out and doing work ordered to them by their masters? Though she couldn’t place why, the fact that they were all so similar in every way was unsettling at best.

Pearl tensed as her opponent lit her gem, but deflated when all that came out was a flagpole, sans flag. “Really, this is unfair.” She said, rolling her eyes and turning toward Hematite. “Isn’t there some other gem I can fight? Just please, not this-“

Suddenly, everything flickered black and sound was punched out of existence. The other pearl had bashed her in the back of the head with her flagpole. Pearl stumbled to the ground and held her hands to her head, groaning and cursing at herself for being foolish. A high whine rung in her ears while her hearing lagged. She turned around quickly to be able to see the other pearl and was just in time to miss a wide swing, aimed at her head again. Her opponent, though fear was still present, looked surprisingly dangerous. She had her pole gripped tightly between her lanky hands just like Pearl’s, and blue blood that Pearl realized was her own was dripping from the end. She pulled one hand from behind her head and saw her palm was covered in it. She had been hit, hard.

“I’m sure we can-“ Pearl began, but stopped herself when the flagpole made another dive toward her and she blocked it with her spear. The two poles collided with a loud scraping sound and grated against each other as neither refused to stop pushing. Pearl was now eye to eye with this pearl and could see a very visible imperfection in her gem. It was like a chip had been cut from its side, rough and broken. Pearl was surprised that she was functioning at such normal levels.

“No, we can’t- drop the act,” she said with a snarl. Pearl was regaining her hearing quickly and could hear her speaking more clearly with each syllable.

Pearl smiled nervously. “Please, we can fight this together. I don’t want to fight you, and I don’t want to hurt you.” She attempted to extend a hand, but her opponent slashed out viciously with her flagpole and narrowly missed her fingertips.

“No.” The other pearl broke face momentarily and panic dominated her features. “Can’t you see? I was ordered here, I was ordered to fight. You know how it works, we don’t have a choice now,” she said as she twisted her pole back and forth to parry with Pearl’s spear. “So please,” she began, barely above a whisper that Pearl could hardly hear, “fight me.” She broke off the contact of their poles and jumped backwards.

Pearl grumbled as the world tipped dangerously on its side with a wave of pain from her head. “Fine,” she muttered, “but I won’t lose.” The other pearl nodded and charged for her with pole outstretched.

Pearl dodged with a precision she’d learned only in battle in the rings. Her opponent made several attempts to put in more blows to her body but failed, for she was no match for Pearl’s speed. What she lacked in speed she made up for in strength however, because Pearl was starting to get very tired of deflecting her flagpole’s strong attacks. She had managed to avoid actually hurting her throughout the fight, but Pearl feared that effort would be lost soon. She was losing steam and soon she would only be able to resort to sloppy stabs and slices with her spear.

_'I don’t want to hurt her,_ ’ Pearl told herself, narrowly missing a swing, _‘but it looks like I’ll have no choice.’_ Pearl fought the urge to look away as she wrenched the other gem’s pole from her hands and stabbed her shoulder, rendering her left arm incapacitated. She yelped and grabbed Pearl’s spear with her other arm, forcing it out from her shoulder and pushing Pearl back a few steps in the process.

They stood several feet apart, panting and staring at each other. Pearl’s opponent was gripping her bleeding shoulder, and Pearl had one hand at the back of her head as well. The bleeding was slowing down, but not fast enough for Pearl’s liking, and she was starting to feel weaker from the blood loss. Neither of them had much time left. Pearl’s stalling had only made this more difficult to pull off.

Pearl considered allowing the other pearl to win, but wondered what would become of her in that situation. Would Hematite beat her? Most likely, but how severely? The possibilities of her punishment ranged from a simple slap to death. Pearl hesitated to risk those odds.

At the same time, looking at the other pearl and watching her bleed and grow weary made Pearl so uncomfortable that she wasn’t sure what would be worse, to defeat her, or feign her own defeat. She looked just like her. Pearl felt a strange sort of connection to her, almost like family. It made every second of the fight feel wrong and painful emotionally, not just physically.

While Pearl was thinking the other pearl had made a move to continue the fight and lunged toward her. Pearl was caught off guard- she tried to feint left but tripped, leaving her arm exposed. It was bashed by the incoming flagpole. Pearl cried out as she felt the bones in her arms twist and crack. The pole had smashed her forearm beyond use. She moaned and pulled her arm to her chest to try to keep it steady, because any movement sent pain down all her nerves. “Please,” She said, but she didn’t know what else to say, and stopped there. _‘Stop,’_ She thought, _‘I want this to stop.’_

Pearl crawled backward, spear in her working hand, as the gem stepped carefully closer and closer. She was ready to swing hard and low. Pearl gasped when her back hit the wall of the pit. The crowd was chanting above them.

“Break! Break! Break! Break!” Pearl tried to ignore it.

She gripped her spear tighter and narrowed her gaze to observe the other pearl’s every movement, waiting for the right moment. She had a desperate look in her eyes, and Pearl was shocked to see tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m sorry,” her opponent said, and raised her arms higher with her pole fully extended behind her. Pearl knitted her brows. This was her chance.

With all her might, Pearl threw her spear forward with her one arm and let it sail from her fingertips. Pearl gasped when it met its mark. The spear skewered the other pearl straight through the chest cleanly and pierced through her back. She looked down with an innate horror that made Pearl feel like a monster, but she surprised Pearl by looking up at her with a small smile.

“Thank you,” She whispered. Pearl gasped and tears began to flow freely down her face but she wasn’t sure why. “I’m free.” Pearl watched as one last tear slid down her cheek before her body disappeared in a white puff of smoke. She heard nothing but the tiny clatter the pearl made as it dropped to the ground. Everything else was drowned away in her shock. She had won.

The silence was broken however when Pearl felt a small piece of garbage hit her shoulder and knock her out of her trance. The crowd was chanting louder than ever. “Break! Break! Break! Break!”

Pearl’s eyes widened with understanding, but still she felt denial. They didn’t expect her to destroy this gem, did they? Pearl searched the crowd for her owner and locked eyes with Hematite, whose every other feature was shrouded in a thick black shadow under her hat. The whites of her eyes were large and Pearl caught the gleam of a single fang at the corner of a wide smile. She blanched. They _did._

Pearl’s hands shook as she reached for her spear, which lay in the sand below where the pearl had disappeared with her blood still coating its blade. She took hold of it and gripped it with all her strength as if it could spirit her away from this mess. Instead, her retrieval only brought on more excited yelling and screaming from the audience. She tried not to cry audibly.

Pearl pushed herself up with the help of her spear with her remaining working arm; her broken one hung limp at her side. She took shaky steps forward toward the defective gem glittering in the sand. Pearl felt like she was staring deeply into a soul, even deeper than it felt to look into the pearl’s eyes while they were fighting.

She spent a long time staring at the pearl. She looked up to Hematite once more, hoping to find some semblance of mercy, some sign that she wasn’t required to kill her. She found none, however, and only watched Hematite give her a very slow nod. She knew that Pearl understood.

Pearl took a raspy breath in and put one foot partially over the pearl to steady it, feeling it sink slightly into the sand. She carefully placed her spear’s blade over her. The tip of her spear made contact and she considered just knocking herself out too. Maybe then the other pearl could live. She knew, though, that there was no chance. This was it.

Time passed in slow motion while Pearl readied herself. She brought her broken arm up and fought the pain as she gripped the spear with that hand as well. She would need the strength of both arms, broken or not. She closed her eyes.

“Break! Break! Break! Break!”

More tears dripped down her nose and landed around the gem beneath her foot. She inhaled sharply and held it. She grimaced. She pushed down on her spear into the center of the pearl.

A loud crack echoed through the ring and everyone was silent. Pearl inhaled again with a pained cry, and shoved her spear the rest of the way through the gem. It split in two.

The crowd cheered wildly but Pearl paid no mind. She sobbed openly with her broken arm held limply over the hilt of her spear and her face in her elbow. She fell to her knees and dropped the murder weapon in favor of touching the broken gem on the ground, in an attempt to find life within it. The effort was futile.

She was gone.


	7. Amber

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl had been able to avoid the realization that the rings were extremely dangerous for a long time. It took the murder of another to remind her. While Pearl feels overwhelming emotions, Iolite tries to bring her back to reality before she loses herself to remorse.

Pearl knew that she was led to the winners’ circle and put on stage but she felt too numb to pay any attention. Everything was muffled against the sound of her own wild but untranslatable thoughts. It felt like a torrent of water crashing into her ears. She felt alone surrounded by many.

She idly noticed that her broken arm was hanging limp at her side and her legs were threatening to give out with how much they were shaking. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the anxiety or because of the fatigue, but either way it made her steps drag and stagger.

Her vision began to fade in her peripherals and her steps were getting clumsier, but curiously enough, she was starting to pick out the sounds around her. Hematite was speaking to her, back turned while they walked home. Hematite didn’t show any signs that she cared about or even noticed Pearl’s condition.

“Now Pearl, that was a truly,  _moving_ , performance,” Hematite sounded irritated and a bit disgusted, “but it’s not going to happen again. I can’t have my fiercest little warrior sniveling in the rings, it won’t do.” She spoke as though Pearl was a toy, and Pearl realized with chagrin that she kind of was her toy, in a sense. Any sentient being worth something wouldn’t be put into the underground fighting market.

Pearl tripped over the entryway to her ‘home’ and was shoved into her cage in one fluid motion. She idly noticed Iolite in the corner of her eye but paid her no mind, for she didn’t have the will to do so. She had killed now. She was officially stripped of any sense of morality or worth. She had frozen herself in that moment strictly for self-preservation, because if she let herself feel anything else, she might lose it.

“Pearl, I’m going to send you back into your gem and I need you to heal yourself so you are ready for your next fight,” Hematite droned, taking her time pulling out the destabilizing tool. Pearl hardly blinked. Everything had shut down, but she knew everything that was happening at the same time. It was like a horrible state of limbo. 

Hematite sighed. She rubbed at her temples, and Pearl wondered if she had a headache. Despite how nasty she knew Hematite was, her programming prevented her from acting on her dislike and forced her to care, though she would never show it. “Hold still.” The madam said, and Pearl looked up sullenly.

“I will.” She said quietly. She knew Hematite would be pleased with her compliance. Practically on command the gem’s fangs gleamed with a wicked smile, and she activated the device. She wasted no time in pressing it roughly into Pearl’s chest. Pearl felt the sensation of being torn in two for just a short moment before collapsing into her gem, no doubt leaving a cloud of white smoke as she had seen many times in the ring.

 

* * *

 

For a while she simply existed within her gem. It had never occurred to her that she might be able to properly think while in this state, so it surprised her when she was able to articulate that thought.

Pearl’s thoughts paused to compose- she didn’t feel as though she had a body, but her mind was entirely intact. The disconnect was unsettling, but not unbearable. In fact, leaving behind a physical form was strangely freeing. It gave her mind plenty of room and time to think, but she figured she didn’t entirely want the time. All she could think about was the pearl she had murdered not long ago.

The memories ranged between the face of shock after her chest had been stabbed cleanly through and the crunch of her gem beneath Pearl’s spear. All of them were too much. The pearl’s face was etched in her memory and had no intention of leaving. Without entirely realizing it, she shut down on the inside too. The void was silent while she recovered her strength.

When Pearl regenerated she wasn’t ready to face her emotions again, but it seemed she had no choice. A bright flash of light precluded the formation of her body and was swallowed into the darkness quickly. It was night.

She inspected her arm to find it free of any marks or breaks. A check over the rest of her body yielded the same results. She wasn’t completely sure how regenerating worked, but it was fascinating at the very least.

The sound of Iolite’s palms slapping the hard ground brought Pearl back to Homeworld, and she looked up to see Iolite’s panicked face through the bars of her cell. “Pearl, Pearl!” She called, but Pearl could hardly be bothered.  _‘Those eyes…’_

“—Wasn’t your fault, you didn’t know,” Iolite rambled, but Pearl didn’t have the concentration to understand what she was saying. She doubted she deserved to hear whatever kindness Iolite had to offer anyway. She curled inward even tighter into her chest.

“Pearl!” Iolite yelled again, suddenly snapping her attention back to her. “Thank you!” Iolite was flustered and looked nervous. “Pearl, you couldn’t have known that you had to break her. You didn’t want to, I know you well enough to know you would never want to do that.”

Pearl spoke for the first time, but it was raspy and weak and she had to clear her throat to sound intelligible. “I could have stopped. I wasn’t ordered.” Her gaze returned to her now spotless shoes.

Iolite hesitated, as if thrown off by the knowledge. “Well… You knew that if you had stopped you would’ve just killed you both. It wasn’t a choice if your survival was involved.”

“But what if it wasn’t,” Pearl said, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes, “what if my survival didn’t mean anything at all?”

Iolite looked as though she was snarling. “Stop it Pearl, I can’t deal with your self-deprecating talk right now. You are worth just as much as any of us! I promise.” Iolite lowered her voice when she noticed Pearl’s threatening tears. “This isn’t your fault. You weren’t given a  _real_ choice.  You need to move forward now.”

 “How long has it been?” Pearl asked, changing the subject abruptly. She looked into Iolite’s fiery eyes and watched them calm with the eye contact.

“What?”

“How long was I in my gem,” Pearl explained.

Iolite looked puzzled. “It was only a few days. I’m surprised you’re already done to be honest.”

Pearl shook her head. “I had too much in my mind that I didn’t want to think about.”

 Iolite gave her a look of pity that sent angry jolts down her stomach. “I doubt you would have done better. You don’t have to look at me like I’m some sort of lost child.” She glared and then let her emotion get the best of her.

 “You always do that! Do you really consider yourself so above me? Do you really know it all, or do you just like to act that way? What’s your angle, your gain? Do you really care or do you just like feeling less alone and like to take advantage of—“

“Stop!” Iolite yelped, her eyes wide. Pearl froze at the sight of her tears. She had backed away and curled an arm in front of her face as if defending herself, but from what, Pearl’s words? Her heart dropped.

“Iolite, I-“

“Shut it. I get it. You’re upset, fine. Take it out on me.” Iolite sniffed and rolled forward on her knees, jamming a finger at Pearl and making her flinch. “Just don’t complain when I’m gone. You need me too. I know you do. You wouldn’t know anything if I wasn’t here to teach you!” Her tears fell in rivers down her plump cheeks. “Do you know what it means to be grateful, or was that not programmed in for you?”

Pearl clenched her fists. “Of  _course_ I’m grateful, without you I…” wouldn’t know anything, she realized. A chill rushed through her. Looking into Iolite’s eyes was painful. She had caused those tears to fall; she had started this. The guilt was crushing. “I-I’m sorry. I guess…”

“You don’t realize what you got sometimes?” Iolite filled in, her expression softening to a somber tone. “I’m sorry too. What I said was mean.”

Pearl sighed. She hated to admit it, but she was wrong. Iolite never meant harm by her sympathetic actions- that much was easy to see. Anger at her situation had clouded her judgment. “I’m sorry,” she said again with her head hung. “I’m just upset. I’m not thinking.” She looked up to see Iolite’s face soften at her confession and even show a hint of a smile.

“I understand. It’s okay, P. We all deal with it differently.” Iolite wiped her face dry. “Just don’t call me a know-it-all. I’m an idiot, that’s why I’m here!” She gestured wildly with her arms at ‘here’. Pearl chuckled quietly.

“You’re not an idiot,” she whispered, a ghost of a smile on her lips. A comfortable silence settled between them.

Iolite broke the silence with a grumble. “We’re gonna make it.”

“What? What do you mean?” Pearl said. The sudden change in disposition from the purple gem was palpable. She was watching her fingertips tap the ground with a determined expression.

“I mean, I’m gonna figure something out. I’ve been trying to plan an escape forever,” she shuffled, nervous. “I think I needed you to get the courage to do it, not to mention your strength.” Pearl blushed at the compliment.

“How do you intend to do that? It’s not as if you have the keys to our cells.” Pearl said, dubious.

“I’ve been here much longer than you P, I know the layout and I know the potential exits, but you’re right, I don’t have the keys.” Her confidence broke. “I haven’t figured out how to get past that yet.”

Pearl nodded. She wasn’t sure that Iolite would really be able to do anything, but maybe she was underestimating her skills or intelligence. “Alright. Then we’ll make it out together.”

Iolite lit up. “Really? You’ll come with me?”

“Well,” Pearl started with a nervous smile, “it’s not as if I know anyone else.” She backtracked when Iolite’s smile started to fade. “Oh, no! I didn’t mean anything, I just, I mean, you’re great, I,” she huffed in frustration. “Oh I don’t know. You know what I mean.”

Iolite was laughing silently while Pearl floundered with an explanation and let it out when she gave up. The sound of her laugh was pleasant and childish, like a high pitch giggle bouncing off the walls. Pearl let go of her frustration and relaxed listening to it. Iolite wiped a tear from her eye.

“Jeez P, you’re a riot.”

Pearl’s eyes widened. Without warning, she was back in the testing area. There was Commander Beryl staring at her with crazed eyes that sought blood.

_“You’re a riot!”_

“Pearl?” Iolite asked. Pearl gasped, blinking her eyes to clear the cottony dryness from apparently not blinking for too long.

“Huh? Oh, excuse me.” Pearl said, uncomfortable. Jarring as it was, Pearl could tell it was only a flash of an old memory. Even as a memory it sent dread through her heart and caused sweat to bead on her forehead. She wiped it away.

“Any chance that we could work on my reading and writing, now? I’m starting to feel better, and I don’t want to lose the recovery,” Pearl said, slightly embarrassed.

Iolite scrambled to sit up straight. “Oh, yeah! Totally, let me just get that pencil and the book and we can start. Do you want to try reading by yourself first?” Pearl nodded. Iolite disappeared behind the wall and returned with the book, which looked even more disheveled than when Pearl first met it, and the pencil, which had been whittled down significantly. The book was tossed across the hall, as was tradition. Pearl traced her fingers over the book’s cover gently before picking it up, cherishing the feeling. She let a soft glow spread from her gem to light the room.

“Alright, let’s try page… 256.” Iolite rattled off, picking a random page to study. Pearl understood, and flipped through the pages.  _‘Two… Five… Six!”_ Pearl thought, finally finding the page and feeling excited that she read the numbers without a problem.

She cleared her throat and started at the beginning of the page. “There’s a fragment here, but I’ll just start at the next sentence. ‘The warriors of the First Gem War were trained almost ex,’ ex-clu… sively, ‘exclusively, with a broad sword to provide an easy weapon to mass produce.’ Alright.

“‘The use of gem weapons was highly dis… couraged, as their use encouraged the thinking and ideals that caused the rebel forces to ret,’ um, re-tal… retaliate?” Iolite nodded. “’Retaliate.’ How is that?” Pearl asked, eager for feedback.

“Not bad,” Iolite said, “Your sentence structure is really improving. Keep going.”

Pearl nodded, and continued. They spent a long time doing this; long enough that Pearl paid no mind to the rise of Homeworld’s largest star. Again, she became engrossed in the excitement of learning and reading. It was still incredible to her, that information could be spread non-verbally. This skill would be infinitely useful outside of the rings. She winced at her mistake.  _‘There is no guarantee that anything will happen.’_ Pearl reprimanded herself. The hope was there though, and that couldn’t go away.

She continued to read with Iolite’s guidance, and ignore the hope ignited in her chest.

 

* * *

 

 The audience shrieked as Pearl emerged from one end of the ring’s doors, stepping onto the red sand that shifted under her feet. The crowds seemed to love her these days, and she assumed it was because everyone knew about her spear. She felt a strange sense of pride in her spear, since it seemed to be such a unique defect. Maybe it would make her more useful after the rings. She didn’t correct herself for the wishful thinking.

Across from her a door slid open and revealed a slender gem at least one head taller than Pearl, with an intricate headdress that draped across her hair and forehead. Her eyes were narrow and sharp, and Pearl could feel them scoping her out from across the ring. She fought the urge to shrink at the confrontation.

Pearl saw her gem glint from her chest. Quickly, as she crossed the ring, she let a light envelop her face and chest as her gem opened. She reached to her gem and pulled a long sword from it, eliciting gasps across the entire ring. It seemed she wasn’t expected to use a weapon.

“Nonsense!” Hematite cried. Pearl was surprised to hear her from so far away. “I was not informed of her weapon!” She sounded shrill, and almost fearful. She must have bet a lot of money.

“No rules broken, Madam Hematite,” A gem across the ring called out. She didn’t yell, but her voice carried loudly. It was deep and guttural, which matched her burly appearance. “You never inform your opponents of  _your_ gem’s weapon.” Hematite grimaced. Unfortunately, the mysterious gem owner was correct. No rules had been broken.

“Does this mean I can begin?” The gem across from Pearl said. She had an inflection to her voice that Pearl couldn’t place, but which sounded different from most of the gems she had interacted with. It sounded sophisticated, which matched her appearance. She was very beautiful.

“My name is Amber.” The gem stated with a sly grin. “It will be a pleasure to battle with you. You are a pearl?”

“Yes,” Pearl said tentatively. She summoned her spear and held it firmly in front of her. “Let’s begin.”

“Straight to the point.” Amber spread her knees and fell into fighting stance. Her weapon exploded with light and she pulled it in half, turning it into dual swords. “I respect your readiness.” Pearl swallowed thickly and mimicked Amber’s stance. The twin blades sparkled as brightly as Pearl’s spear. She was horribly outmatched.

“Let me see the color of your blood.” Amber said, sending a chill down Pearl’s spine, before shooting forward faster that Pearl could have guessed she’d be capable of. Amber was in front of her in a flash and she barely had time to shove her spear in the way of her blades before they sliced right through her. The blades grinded and Amber laughed, a deep rumbling sound.

“You are strong for your size.” Amber said, before twisting Pearl’s spear out of her grasp with ease. “Not strong enough though, I fear. Pity.” Pearl gasped and reached to summon another spear but failed to move fast enough, getting slashed across the arms while trying to dodge backwards. A cry caught in her throat at the pain.

Amber was smiling. “Such a lovely blue.” Pearl assumed she was insane. She had to be, or for what other reason would she be in the rings? Pearl held her wounded forearms tightly in an attempt to slow the bleeding, and crouched low as she successfully summoned another spear. She was miles away from strong enough to defeat Amber, and she knew it. The knowledge was almost crippling.

“May I see more?” Amber whispered as she stepped closer to Pearl, who snarled. Pearl jabbed her spear into Amber’s ankle, letting loose a spray of golden blood and a small yelp of pain.

“No.” Pearl growled. Amber reached down to hold her ankle with one sword outstretched to Pearl’s face.

“You wretch. You’ve spilt my blood!” Amber all but roared, rearing up with both swords and shoving them down at Pearl’s curled up form, but Pearl was faster and deflected the blades as she twisted from beneath them to Amber’s side. She attempted another stab in her opponent’s side but was deflected equally as well. The rage in Amber’s eyes was terrifying. Any confidence Pearl had was quickly extinguished at their eye contact. Amber must have sensed this, because her lips upturned in the most ghastly smile Pearl had ever seen, including Hematite.  

“You are no match and you know it, little one,” Amber spat. She swept her blades in tandem with each other, trying to break down Pearl’s defenses. Her hold on her spear grew weaker and weaker. She was losing her grip. Pearl whimpered pathetically, panicking.

“Yes! Be afraid.” Amber said, and her barrage increased in speed. Pearl shut her eyes tightly as she fought with every ounce of her strength to hold back Amber’s blows. Her arms began to shake and leave uneven splats of her blue blood in the sand.

“You’ve lost, little pearl.” Amber smirked. “Good night!”

Before Pearl could react, Amber’s twin swords clasped Pearl’s spear and wrenched it for the second time out of her grip. Her hands were empty and Amber had her blades ready. There was no time for a new spear. Time moved in slow motion. The blades began to fall and she put her arms up in defense, but they were no use.

The blades sliced cleanly through Pearls arms and sent white spots into her vision as the pain blinded her. Fortunately, though, the pain was not for long. Almost immediately after the loss of half her arms one of the blades fell directly on top of Pearl’s gem. An agonizing scratching sound erupted in her ears. She wasn’t sure if she had screamed or not. Pearl felt a horrid crack through her entire being that caused every sense to explode, and then felt nothing.

She had been chipped.


	8. Smoke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl is injured in a way retreating into her gem can't fix. Will she be able to keep it together?

Being inside her gem had become a bit of a comfort. Since she had spent so much time there, between being injured and being put there by force before or after fights, she'd become more and more comfortable with the concept of being bodiless. There was a sense of freedom as well as safety while inside.

Unfortunately, all of that went out the window after her gem had chipped.

Immediately after the fight with Amber all she felt was the white-hot agony that was her gem breaking. She had no perception of how long she had felt paralyzed, but it felt like an eternity. It hurt like nothing she'd experienced before, and the ring had shown her many injuries. It radiated throughout her every thought and memory in a way that invaded any sense of privacy. Pearl had never considered pain to be a physical entity, but nothing compared to what felt like a demon pervading every corner of her mind.

She began to feel small bursts of emotions, like white spots on a black canvas. They were anything from fear to anger, but none of them made cognitive sense. It was like watching a reel of a movie and only catching a few cells. The emotions broke their way through the surface of Pearl's blank space.

The first cohesive thought she had was terror for what Hematite would think of her dramatic loss. She took the ability to think as a good sign that she hadn't been crushed already, but there was no guarantee that it wasn't in her future. Thinking hurt, and sounded like a thousand wailing voices scratching the insides of her ears. It was horrible, but she was unable to escape it for the longest time.

She couldn't know how long it had been but that it had been too long before she felt that she would be capable of creating a physical form again. She fought the horrible pain it caused her to think about it. Pearl tried to imagine her arms, her legs, and her fingers and tried hard not to forget anything. Regenerating had never been difficult before.

It was only through her meticulous checklist that she was able to escape her gem as a physical manifestation. She dropped a few inches down to touch the dirty floor of her cell with properly formed feet and scrambled to check every inch of herself. A tear here, a rip there, but her clothes seemed to be the only thing not quite right. Her eyes welled up with primal relief that she was even  _alive._

She tried to look around but found her vision spotty and blurred. Her hearing wasn't all there either, apparently, because she heard muffled sounds that she couldn't decipher.

Vision returned to normal first after she blinked to clear up the spots as though they were dirt. Pearl focused right on Hematite, the one gem she had hoped not to see first. She stepped in front of her and took a fistful of her shirt in her hand. She began to speak, and Pearl understood bits and pieces.

"You useless… dirt, I wasted so much on… I can't believe this!" The last part was clear as day, because Hematite screamed. The madam tossed Pearl aside into the wall of her cell. Pearl shook uncontrollably and huddled as closely to the wall as possible, but Hematite didn't allow her to hide for long.

"You are to blame for my undoing! You've been my star for so long, my little warrior, why have you failed me? You were supposed to be my gold mine!" Hematite was positively screeching, tearing papers to shreds and pulling at her hair.

Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks, and pointed to the corner of Pearl's cell. "What is  _that?_ " she asked viciously. Pearl gasped; it was the book.

"It's nothing, I-I don't know Madam, please-" Pearl was cut off by Hematite's bony fingers tightly gripping her throat, lifting her in the air.

"Is this some sort of project? You shouldn't even be able to read, so why is this- No. Where is that wretch?" She dropped Pearl for the second time and whipped around to the cell directly across from Pearl's. Her heart dropped. Iolite.

"Iolite, darling, won't you come out?" Hematite said, her visage suddenly morphing into the sickening sweetness Pearl had come to know well. This time, however, there was no condescending tone. It was all work, no play.

Silence answered her, so she angrily swiped through her keys to unlock Iolite's cell as well. Pearl stayed put, even though her cell's bars were ajar. She wouldn't dare risk it, with her death so carefully hung above her head. She reached for the book and snatched it, holding it close to her chest as comfort.

"No," she called out weakly when Hematite entered Iolite's cell. She stepped out with a wicked, maddening grin and Iolite in tow by her collar. "No!" Pearl repeated, her confidence growing out of concern for her friend. Iolite wasn't protesting.

"I see you were playing friends again, Iolite," Hematite said, mouth twitching at the corners of her smile. "Were you teaching her how to read? How touching." Iolite looked to the floor, refusing to meet Hematite's eye contact. Pearl could only look on in horror.

Without warning Pearl's arm gave out, glowing a bright white like the glow that summoned her spear and flickering in and out of tangibility. She gasped and focused on reforming her arm quickly, and was able to bring it back to stability. Hematite sneered. "Falling apart from such a tiny mark, pathetic." Pearl felt a wave of pain strike her thoughts.

Hematite stood straight then, and Pearl noticed that her fangs were literally dripping with venom that seared the ground. It was a disturbing sight. She had let go of Iolite's shirt and had a hand to her chin. Iolite winced when a drop of Hematite's venom landed on her shoulder and instantly left a burn mark. Pearl felt a swirl of anger hit her chest.

Hematite crossed the path into Pearl's cell, easily pulling the book from her fingers. Pearl reached to protest, but found her form destabilizing at the effort and stress, which only served to make Hematite laugh. "My, you've been working on penmanship as well! How noble of you Iolite," She looked over her shoulder at the non-responsive gem, "teaching the less fortunate." Iolite showed the first hints of emotion then by sending Hematite a smoldering glare. Pearl was relieved to see her reacting at all.

"She is  _not_  less fortunate. Pearl is smart and she's gonna get out of this mess. I trust her to!" Iolite squeaked when Hematite gripped her neck tightly enough to fully close her airways. "She's gonna beat you," Iolite choked out, "you  _bitch._ "

"Iolite, stop!" Pearl cried out as Hematite threw her friend into the wall beside her, cracking the concrete. Hematite turned to face Pearl once again, her eyes wide. Pearl shied away at her stare.

"Disgusting," Hematite spat, "but I suppose I'm not surprised." She held the book in front of her and began to rip out the pages, one by one. Pearl's tears returned full force. In that book was months of practice and memories, all getting torn apart in front of her eyes. It was too much.

Without thinking, Pearl summoned her spear, and threw it with all her might towards Hematite. She was beyond angry. She had no right, she thought. Then again, she had every right, she owned Pearl. The months of reassurance otherwise from Iolite had allowed her to forget. Pearl gasped as Hematite dodged it easily, and it lodged itself in the wall behind her. If Hematite was angry before, now she was furious.

"Weapon be damned, I have no use for you anymore with that chip in your gem. You'll be dead before tomorrow." Pearl froze. So, she would be broken. She truly was worthless.

"And  _you,"_  she growled, turning back to Iolite with fiery purpose, " _you_ will join her." Pearl's breath hitched in her throat.

"No, she didn't do anything!" Pearl yelled, eyes wide and begging for Iolite to make eye contact with her. She wasn't looking. She wasn't even blinking.

Pearl began to crawl backwards as Hematite approached her. "Iolite, Iolite please!" A sob shook her body and her back hit the wall. Hematite's smirk stretched wildly over her dripping fangs. "Iolite...?" No response.

Hematite had picked Pearl up and begun dragging her out of her cell but she hardly cared. She was too injured by Iolite's silence. Why was she not responding? Had she done something wrong? The desperation of the situation forced violent, helpless, vulnerable sobs from her chest.

As Pearl was dragged down the hallway by the back of her shirt, she had a full view of Iolite sitting at the bars of her cell, just slightly outside of it. Iolite looked up and Pearl felt a glimmer of hope. "Iolite, you need to get out of here!" Pearl yelled, knowing that Hematite being distracted by her would give Iolite a long enough opening.

Iolite looked into her eyes and Pearl could see her own fear mirrored in hers. She looked doubtful. "Pearl, I-I don't know, I-"

"Try!" Pearl begged, "Please, try!"

"That's enough of this," Hematite snarled, and a quick flash of light popped behind Pearl. Before she could turn to look, she saw a thin black object soar through the air. It was a throwing knife, Pearl realized.

"Io-!" Pearl gasped as she watched the knife plant itself firmly between Iolite's eyes. Iolite had never broken eye contact. Pearl felt her chest contract with fear. Iolite became a puff of lavender smoke. "No!" Pearl screamed, scratching the back of her throat with her cries. "You monster!" She looked up at Hematite, who had another knife in her palm. She put two and two together and flinched.

"I said, that's enough." Hematite said darkly, and she sunk a knife into Pearl's neck. She felt a burst of pain and lost control of her body, flashing into her gem once again with a resounding feeling of absolute terror. They'd both lost.

 

* * *

 

Stuck inside her gem once more, Pearl fought against the scraping of nails and claws and screams that echoed in her mind. She fought hard to regain the ability to think, to process what had happened, and what would happen next.

_'Hematite said I would be dead before tomorrow, but would she just crush me while I'm still just a gem?'_  Pearl questioned, among hundreds of other concerns that terrorized her. Most prominent were the fears about Iolite. She really, really hoped Hematite had just been angry, and that her friend would be spared. She hadn't done anything wrong.

Pearl worked to break through the surface of her scattered consciousness and form a body once more. If it was going to be her last day, she was going to put up a fight. Once she grabbed hold of the outside world, she shoved herself outward into a hastily made, but accurate, body.

Pearl tried to open her eyes before the light had even dissipated from her regeneration. She looked around wildly, trying to take in her surroundings or find a hint of how much danger she was in. She was behind one of the rings and two gems had grabbed her wrists as soon as they'd formed. Hematite stepped into her view with her fangs glowing with venom.

"If you won't listen to me, then I'll have to use my authority to keep you in check," she said, standing firm and looking deep into Pearl's soul. "Pearl B27A20, serial code 4918853285-P, property of Hematite, code 9374H18, status report."

Pearl clicked into place, reciting her lines like a robot.  **"Pearl B27A20, serial code** **4918853285-P, property of Hematite, code** **9374H18; reporting minor abrasion to upper left quadrant of gem. Vitals fine, regeneration fine, processing power normal, stability unsatisfactory."**

"Request command queuing status."

**"Current commands in place: 0. Would you like to request a new one?"**

Hematite smiled gleefully. "Yes, please. I command you to shatter your next opponent, at any cost."

**"Understood. Current commands in place: 1. Would you like to request a new one?"**  Inside, Pearl was screaming.  _'Not another one, no no I can't kill another one!'_  she thought, fighting against the wall that represented her hard-coded submission, but she could never penetrate it. She felt the order activate in her thoughts.

"That will be all, thanks." Hematite said, her smile growing more and more sinister with each syllable. Pearl snapped back to reality, gasping and gripping her head. The command was overwhelming all her senses telling her to stop. She looked at Hematite with fury and hatred as her feet mechanically stepped toward the doors to the ring, and she never lost eye contact, even as the door slid shut between them.

Pearl continued to take steps toward the center of the ring and she looked left and right for her opponent, but found none. She summoned her spear and waited. It felt like an eternity before the other door opened.

Her opponent was kicking and screaming, fighting to break free from the gems that held her hostage. They dragged her forward slowly, and Pearl slid into an offensive stance, awaiting the start of the fight. Dread filled every corner of her body at the thought of breaking this poor gem, albeit forcibly.

The gems threw her to the sand and shut the door, but not before she dashed backwards to try to break through them, banging on the metal doors with a painfully loud  _clank_.

The gem sank to the ground and faced forward. Pearl stood her ground, partially out of respect and partially due to her pre-programmed orders. A minute passed without movement. The crowd was yelling and booing but Pearl paid no mind, and apparently, neither did her opponent.

Finally, she stood, and took light steps forward to meet Pearl in the center of the ring. As the shade fell off her frame while she stepped into the light, it took Pearl several seconds to process what she was seeing.

_"NO!"_  She screamed, dropping her spear and grasping her head. She tried to will away the command. She tried to fight what was telling her to fight. She tried to challenge the pain that was coursing through her body with each second she failed to obey.

"It's okay," she said, so softly Pearl could hardly hear. "It's alright Pearl. You didn't know."

Iolite was standing opposite of her, looking up with the faintest of smiles and tears in her eyes. She looked almost angelic from the glow above them. Her hands were clasped together at her chest, waiting for Pearl to look at her.

"Iolite!" She cried, tearing at her hair. "P-please, get out of here! Leave, before I-" She cut herself off with a yelp of pain as the order, or was it the chip, seared her chest. This couldn't be happening, it had to be a hallucination, from her injury. "Please, leave!"

"No." Iolite said simply. If she was afraid, she hardly showed it. "I don't have anywhere to go, P. Besides, this isn't so bad, right? Not a bad way to go, with a friend."

Pearl sobbed. "You're not going anywhere! You're not-" She screamed again and lost control for just long enough to summon another spear and take a shaky step forward, closer to Iolite. The pain was unbearable.

"Pearl." Iolite said, capturing her attention even though she could hardly see through the tears. "It's alright. Don't fight it. I know it hurts, I know it hurts a lot to lose somebody, but hey, at least it's just me." She smiled and ran her hand through her hair, embarrassed.

"It's not just you," Pearl said, the desperation obvious in her tone, "it's  _you_! You're too important, I can't do this!" She took another step forward and yelped, breath hitching in her throat. Her hands were attempting to drive the spear forward. Iolite was too close. She was losing the battle within.

"Yes you can, Pearl," Iolite said, "and you have to. You know you've got no choice. Just let go." She smiled even though her voice cracked and a tear spilled over.

"I-I… I," Pearl stuttered, her weapon moving closer and closer to Iolite's exposed hand where her gem shined. "Iolite, please…" She pleaded. Iolite shook her head.

"You've got to. Listen to me." Iolite said with slight force. Pearl nodded a bit, watching as her spear's head inched closer and closer to her friend's gem. "There's going to be a raid." Iolite whispered. Pearl's heart fluttered.

"Then that's how you can esc-" Iolite shushed her to stop her from speaking louder. Pearl blinked away more tears.

"That's how  _you_  can escape. Just hold on, long enough for the raid to happen, and they'll save you, Pearl, I know it." Iolite gasped as Pearl's spear clinked with the face of her gem. She shivered and looked deep into Pearl's eyes. "Keep talking to me," She said, and Pearl nodded, shaking from the sobs that broke her.

"How am I going to keep learning my reading?" Pearl said, sniffing and fighting hard to keep her spear from smashing into Iolite. Instead, it gently pushed her hand down to the ground. "You're the best teacher on Homeworld."

Iolite snorted. "Oh please, am not. You're smart P, I know you can do the rest yourself." She gasped quietly and Pearl realized she was crying too. "Keep p-practicing," She said, smile faltering with trembling lips.

"I will, I promise!" Pearl said. She reached down and grasped Iolite's other hand, gripping it tightly. They both needed it. She squeezed hard every time a new flash of pain struck her spine.

"I-I don't think there's much left to fight Pearl, I'm gonna ask you to let go so you can do it quickly, but one more thing, okay?" Her eyes were wide with the fear of death. Pearl nodded again, sniffling.

"Keep being your own gem, P, okay?" Her voice cracked. "You have to promise me that you'll be yourself. No one owns you, do you understand?" She squeezed Pearl's hand back.

Pearl smiled through the tears. "Okay," she whispered, "I promise."

"Okay," Iolite began, "so I… I think I want you to let go now. I don't want this to hurt. Do you think it hurts, P?" She looked like a child, injured and lost.

"No, I don't think it hurts Iolite," Pearl said, even though she had no way of knowing. "It's just like going back to your gem, it's so fast, and you won't even know it." She had no way of knowing, but she so wanted it to be true.

Iolite's expression softened. "Okay." She said quietly. Pearl savored the way her voice sounded and how her hand felt in her own. She squeezed it again. "On three?" Pearl nodded, shaking so hard she could hardly control her spear.

"One…"

Pearl sucked in a breath and shuddered, her exhale coming out in a hysteric cry. She nodded wildly; this was it. She squeezed her eyes shut.

"Two…"

Another wave of pain hit her and she cried out again, whether from the emotional or physical agony, she couldn't know. This couldn't be happening, this couldn't be real. She opened her eyes, taking in the way Iolite looked once more.

If she wasn't beautiful before, she was now. Her light purple hair had spilled outward from being pushed into the sand and the light shined from it like diamonds. She was looking up with calming eyes, as though she wanted to soothe Pearl more than herself. Her small hand curled inside Pearl's elongated fingers, warm and soft. She was truly beautiful. Pearl cried for the fact she hadn't seen it before from across the cell doors.

"Three." Iolite whispered.

"I'm sorry," Pearl gasped. Iolite rubbed her thumb over Pearl's hand gently.

"I know."

Pearl let her go.

Her hand and spear shot forward with deadly speed. They pierced through Iolite's gem before she had a chance to feel it. The weight of her hand vanished from Pearl's. Iolite disappeared in the smoke that matched her hair, and in the same breath, her gem shattered into millions of tiny pieces.


	9. Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It seems as though all is lost with her dearest friend killed by her own blade, but Pearl must learn to look ahead to a future promised by Iolite; a future she was destined to hold.

Pearl’s every sense was filled with pain. Light sparkled off every facet of Iolite’s every shard, scattered among the sand in a sea of purple. Her throat burned as she screamed. Her weapon hung loosely in her shaking hands, her shoulders hunched and knees reaching the ground.

She looked around her sprawled legs at the remains of her only friend. She reached into the sand, sifting through it for pieces and willing them to fall back together and Iolite to reform with a laugh, saying it had all been a joke.

“No, no no,” Pearl muttered between hiccups, “no, I wasn’t ready, I take it back. Come back, Iolite, come back,” she gasped, “you said you would come with me, outside. I don’t know anyone else, I don’t-“ She choked and bit her lip, drawing a small bead of blood.

She looked up, into the light that was illuminating the gem shards. She could see the crowd jumping but could only hear the rush of feverish blood through her ears. A haze was wrapping itself around her body and she realized she was attempting to shut herself down. She refused.

Pearl gripped her spear tightly again, tight enough to whiten her knuckles. She raised her spear. “I don’t think I can do this Iolite.” She said gravely. “I said I would go but I don’t think I can go, Iolite. Not without you,” She exhaled with a resounding quake. “Not without you,” she whispered. In one fluid motion, she flipped her weapon to face herself.

Pearl stared down the point of her spear as she aimed it to her forehead. Steely resolve clouded every judgment. “I’m sorry, Iolite, I’m-“ she gasped and sobbed, “I’m sorry!” She tensed her trembling arms, every intent of shoving her spear into the center of her forehead, into her gem-

Hands snatched her arms and pried them apart. Her spear fell between her arms to the sand and evaporated almost immediately on contact. She screamed. “Unhand me!” She screeched, flailing with all her might as they pulled her to her feet. “Please, just let me go too!” She cried out with the pain of their incredibly tight grip on her upper arms, but she could hardly care.

The arms carried her forward, away from the center of the rings. Pearl gasped. “No, don’t just _leave_ her there! Don’t leave her- Iolite!” She howled, pushing and pulling at her restraints. She looked back desperately, watching the purple sparkles fade from view one by one until they were too distant to see. “Iolite, Iolite-!” She coughed, reaching for air she couldn’t reach. Her throat was so raw her voice was hardly breaking the surface anymore.

Only when the doors slid open did Pearl turn her head back around. They revealed Hematite, whose teeth were still dripping poison over her stained lips. “Bring her to the empty ring,” she commanded coolly, and the arms obliged. Pearl drooped and allowed her tears to fall in silence, save for the occasional sniff or cough. Her eyes followed the lifeless ground, but she saw Iolite’s smile.

Hematite opened up the doors to another ring, and she was led inside at her toes. Pearl marveled at how quiet the ring was without an audience. It was dark too, with only minimal lighting still on. It felt menacingly empty.

Pearl jumped as her arm turned a sparkling white. Her form had lost control, she realized, and she fought to rematerialize. After a few moments of intense concentration her arm returned and the light faded. A single drop of sweat dripped down her neck. The exertion had been high.

Hematite looked at her with disgust and disdain. “My pearl,” she began, “you made me thousands over the past several months. Unfortunately, you’ve been injured, and while it seems miniscule, it also seems to affect you too much to yield reliable results in battle.” Her eyes narrowed as she stared into the chip on Pearl’s gem. “Disappointing, but inevitable.”

Hematite looked away briefly. Pearl could have sworn she saw doubt flash across her face before she regained her heartless front. Imagining that Hematite had any sort of feelings of worth or care associated with her was disturbing at best, given all that she had done to her.

“Because of your injury I’m inclined to destroy you, and I’ve made the decision to do so.” She said with her nose turned up. Pearl would have rolled her eyes at all the fanfare, but felt too exhausted to emote anymore. “I thought,” she wavered for a moment, “that perhaps doing so in private would be more respectable.”

Pearl grunted, resisting the urge to laugh in her face. “As if you feel any respect towards me.” Pearl said, surprised at the intensity of the rasp in her voice. “If you wanted to be respectable, you would never have gotten into this slave-driving business.” She glared upward with the remains of her energy.

Hematite sighed. It was unsettling how personal she was acting. “I can’t expect you to understand, as a Pearl.” She wiped a hand across her chin to remove the last drops of venom still hovering there. “I paid an awful lot for you, darling.”

“Ah yes, the money.” Pearl whispered. She couldn’t believe she’d thought it could be anything else. She refused to entertain the thought that Hematite had placed more than monetary worth on her person. Her hands glowed white and she gasped, forcing them back to normal as quickly as she could manage. Hematite sighed.

“You were a great asset, Pearl, take pride in that. An unlikely warrior.” Hematite said quietly. With a flick of her wrist she summoned a single short blade that she palmed with ease. Pearl looked down.

“Make it quick.” She said, closing her eyes. She heard the swish of Hematite’s clothing as she stepped forward, and the crack of her wrist… and the distant sound of a scuffle.

Hematite paused. “There are no more scheduled fights this evening.” She said, curious.

Pearl’s eyes snapped open. _‘The raid!’_ she thought, a surge of hope striking her chest. How had Iolite known? It was true! She allowed a massive grin to sweep her face. She felt the trails left by her tears crack. “You’re right,” Pearl said with an outlandish laugh barking from her raw throat.

Hematite’s eyes narrowed. “Then what-“

Before she could continue to speak, a gem burst through the ring’s doors, gasping and heaving. “Madam, we have been found!” The gem yelled, looking back and forth down the hallway almost too quickly to follow. “You must go, now!” The gem looked to the left for the fifth time, but had no time to look back again. She was so quickly poofed into nothingness that it took a moment before chaos took control.

Pearl felt the tight hands release her from their grip as the gems that were restraining her made a dash for the door. They were yelling to each other, but about what Pearl couldn’t guess or distinguish. Hematite stood surprisingly steady. Pearl swayed a bit as she regained purchase with her feet, then summoned a spear in her hands in the same moment that she spread her legs in a defensive stance.

“Oh, please.” Hematite said quietly, a spark of fear showing through her façade despite her efforts. “You are no match for me and you know it, dear.”

“I know that,” Pearl said, carefully inching forward bit by bit, “but they might be.” A grin cracked her face.

Hematite whipped her head behind her to see a full line of at least ten gem soldiers standing with weapons at the ready, all pointed at her. She bit her lip and drew metallic black blood. Pearl watched her twist the already summoned knife in her hand.

“Oh thank goodness!” Hematite said, adding hysteria to her tone that confused Pearl. “Look, I have found this poor Pearl in this ring, by herself! We must rescue her at once.”

Pearl realized what she was doing. She glared and opened her mouth to protest, but was frustratingly stopped by the intentional glinting of Hematite’s knife directly into her eyes, as a warning. The soldiers stepped forward in unison. The sound of all of their heels stomping at once was jolting and powerful. Pearl felt fear restrike her heart.

“Identify yourself, woman.” One soldier said, her clothing and armor seemingly more grandiose than the others. She must have been the commanding officer.

Hematite scoffed. “Oh come now, we haven’t much time! Come darling, she needs attention! She has been injured!” She snagged Pearls forearm, but she yanked at her grip violently.

“Let go of me!” Pearl yelled, pulling her arm from Hematite’s cold hand with all her might. “Let go of me,” she repeated, looking into the eyes of the commander. “Please, she is one of the fighters! She illegally purchased me!”

Pearl’s stomach dropped as she saw only a small twitch of the eyebrow afflict the officer’s face. She was ignoring her. She realized it was because she was a pearl. The help wouldn’t even listen to her.

Hysterical tears came with laugher as she sat squarely in the middle of the empty ring. She looked up into a small window where light was gently streaming in. She truly was alone without her.

“You won’t listen to me,” Pearl said between rabid chuckles, “no one will listen to me. How funny.”

“Commander,” A soldier piped up, looking down at a holographic screen, “this woman is coming up as an upper class Hematite. Her code matches the wanted list.”

Pearl’s attention snapped to Hematite, whose eyes widened with fear and realization. “What? That’s impossible! Your machinery must be broken dear, that simply isn’t true!” She laughed quietly, nervously, stepping back and away from the soldiers approaching her.

Pearl was awestruck as the soldiers reached to seize her, but not before she screamed and threw her knife in Pearl’s general direction. The knife missed by a mile, she hadn’t properly aimed in her panic. The soldiers grabbed her arms and held her down to the ground, pushing her into the sand with her jet-black hair fanned in a tangled mess. She wiggled and fought, crying out, “I’m innocent! Your insolent pests, I outclass you! You cannot handle me like this!”

The commander gem pulled from behind her a tool not unlike the one Hematite had used on Pearl a number of times to force her to recede into her gem. Pearl and Hematite nearly gasped in unison.

“Hematite 9374H18, I hereby arrest you and take you into custody for illegally purchasing defective gems, illegal ownership of damaged property, and a litany of other charges to be discussed after you’ve been properly restrained and jailed.” Hematite shook her head.

“No, this is immoral! You cannot do this, you-!” She was cut off as the commander stuck the prongs of the instrument into her forearm, and her form rippled a blinding white before disappearing in a cloud of hazy black smoke.

Pearl covered her mouth in shock. Her owner had been arrested before her eyes. She would answer for her crimes. It seemed too good to be true. Before she could breathe easily, however, the commander turned back on her with a look that froze over her growing elation. 

“You are a designated defective pearl.” The commander stated. She stopped a few feet in front of Pearl, looking down with bemused eyes. “Because of this, you are to be destroyed immediately as illegal property.”

Pearl gasped. “Wait, no! How is that right?” Her thoughts blended together. She still wasn’t worth anything, even when her owner was gone. She was going to be thrown away, as was originally intended those many months ago.

She crawled backwards from the commander’s smooth steps. The commander put a hand up behind her to stop her soldiers from following, taking it upon herself to remove Pearl. Pearl cried out as her leg faltered, glowing white as it destabilized. “I-I can fix it!” Pearl said, focusing intensely to regain opacity, and she did so within a few seconds. She smiled up at the commander, but she was not amused.

“Besides being defective, you are also injured. It is my duty as a law-abiding gem to dispose of you.” The commander held out her destabilizing weapon. She stepped on Pearl’s ankle, which stopped her from inching backward any farther. Pearl squeaked and pulled on her ankle, but it was of no use. She was trapped.

Pearl held up an arm to shield her, crying out. “Wait!” She yelled, fighting back more tears. “P-please, I am still useful! I can still perform duties of servitude! I can show you! Please don’t kill me!” She hated how desperate she sounded. Just minutes earlier she had been intent on killing herself. She remembered Iolite for a brief moment and a bit of her calmed down.

The commander reached down. “Hold still.” She said. Pearl struggled anyway. The weapon came closer and closer to her chest, just inches away, when suddenly the doors to the ring were slammed open, ripped from their hinges.

“Wait!” A voice called. The commander halted immediately. She straightened herself and went at attention in response.

Pearl looked around the commander, curious. In the doorway stood an incredibly tall gem, shrouded in darkness beneath the lip of the ring. She stepped quickly into the light, and Pearl gasped.

The woman had beautiful fair skin and heavily decorated military clothing. Behind her spilled mountains of bright pink curls, out of control and managing to sparkle even in the dim lights. At her stomach sat a glimmering pink circular gem, that was surrounded by a decorative star. Pearl looked up and made direct eye contact with her. Her eyes were full of unbridled concern and care.

“Are you alright?” She asked, making light steps toward Pearl as she spoke. Pearl was mesmerized. She had lost track of her thoughts as she watched the woman’s curls bounce. Only her increasingly worried expression reminded her to respond, and Pearl nodded slowly.

Pearl cried out in surprise as the arm that was supporting her fell apart. She had lost her focus, and she cursed herself for the embarrassment. She shut her eyes and willed her arm back, and when it obeyed, she opened them to find the gem towering over her. Despite her military status and the likely dress code requirements, she was wearing a white skirt with many layers that floated over one another.

A pudgy hand reached out to Pearl, soft brown eyes never leaving Pearl’s face. “You’re hurt,” she said quietly in her low soothing voice. “Did my women do this to you?” She asked, a faint look of anger dusting her expression. Pearl shook her head wildly and gulped. She didn’t think she could speak without embarrassing herself.

This gem was truthfully the most beautiful Pearl had ever seen, even compared to the gems that showed off eccentric styles on advertisements. She’d seen them on her occasional walks to and from the rings with Hematite. Her eyes brimmed with emotion that spilled forth with her rumbling words. Her hair never seemed to stop moving.

“Close your eyes,” the woman said with a reassuring smile. Pearl trusted her without hesitation and obeyed. After a moment, she felt a distinct tingling feeling in her gem. Every inch of her felt overcome with vibrating warmth that left her heart dancing for joy. She opened her eyes to see the gem leaning over her with tears in her eyes. She frowned.

“Why are you crying?” She asked, and she winced at the weakness in her voice.

The gem shook her head and smiled widely. “I’m fine. Do you feel better?” She asked, taking Pearl’s hands in her own. Pearl gasped. Her hands felt so small inside of hers. They felt soft and kind, like her face. It felt like a great privilege to be touching them.

“Yes,” she nearly whispered, smiling uncomfortably at the improper tone of her voice, “though may I ask, what did you do?”

“I am able to heal gems with my tears. I saw that you had a chip in yours and how it destabilized you. I healed your gem when I asked you to close your eyes.” Pearl nodded, fascinated.

She turned away, and Pearl felt saddened that she could no longer look into her eyes. She spoke with authority over the soldiers. “Whom do you have in custody?”

The commander spoke up from beside her, and Pearl, in her captivation, had forgotten she was still there. “We have taken the owner of this pearl into custody, Ma’am.”

She nodded. “Have her taken away to the jails and questioned when she comes to. I will join you all shortly.”

“But Ma’am, what of this defective pearl? Shouldn’t she be disposed of?” The commander asked. Pearl glared at her.

“Does she look defective to you, Rhodolite?” The commander shook her head violently. “Then I don’t believe she needs to be disposed of. You are dismissed.” The commander saluted her along with the line of soldiers, and they marched out, leaving Pearl alone with her mysterious savior.

“I’m sorry,” she said with a hint of embarrassment, “she can be a bit stuffy. She means well.” Pearl doubted it, but nodded anyway. The woman put her hands out, and Pearl willingly placed her hands in them this time. She smiled.

“I’m sorry for not introducing myself.” She said with a laugh. Pearl bit back a gasp; her laugh sounded like harmonic chimes. “My name is Rose Quartz. You’re Pearl, right?” She held Pearl’s hands gently, but firmly. “I’m pleased to meet you, even if it had to be under these circumstances.”

“…I am honored, Rose Quartz.” Pearl said slowly. Rose helped her to her feet and she immediately bowed lowly. “You’ve saved my life. I am in your debt.”

The wind chime laugh rang again through the still air. “You don’t owe me anything, Pearl. This was my pleasure.” Pearl shivered at how familiar and comforting it was to hear her say her name. She felt more like an individual than she had before.

“Iolite!” Pearl gasped. She looked up at Rose Quartz in desperation. “Can you heal broken gems if I find all the pieces?”

Rose Quartz frowned. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. Once they’re broken they’re beyond my help.”

Pearl felt a weight in her chest. “Oh,” she said, fighting tears again. “Thank you anyway.”

“Was Iolite your friend?” Rose asked, her eyes demanding to be met.

“Yes.” Pearl said, looking down despite Rose Quartz’s beautiful eyes beckoning. The shock of the situation was starting to wear down, and with it raised the feeling of intense sadness. Even though she had been saved, she’d still killed her only friend. That would never go away.

“It wasn’t your fault, Pearl,” Rose said, and Pearl couldn’t help but see the parallels between her and Iolite as they had tried to comfort her in her times of mourning and guilt. She took a long moment to remember her friend in her brightest memories.

“You still need to be freed, don’t you?” Rose Quartz said, breaking Pearl’s concentration.

“What?”

“Your programming. You are still registered to that Hematite, aren’t you?” Pearl realized it was true, and nodded yes. “I am going to override that, is that alright?”

Pearl valued her asking permission first. She valued everything about Rose Quartz so far, to be honest with herself. She made everything feel like it had melted away. She captivated any audience, and any environment. She could unintentionally command a room with her presence. Even the air thought she was beautiful by the way it allowed her curls to roll sweetly over her shoulders. Pearl could never imagine what it must feel like to be so powerful as to command the air.

“Yes.” She said, unconditionally.

“One moment, please.” Rose reached into the breast pocket of her jacket and pulled a small holographic clipboard from it, turning it on and quickly scanning over Pearl’s gem. “Alright, Pearl B27A20, serial number 4918853285-P, allegiance report.” She sounded uncomfortable with the script.

“ **Allegiance registered to: Hematite 9374H18. Is this correct?”**

“Negative. Override allegiance to unaffiliated.”

**“Unaffiliated allegiance requires override from a commanding officer. Please input the code of the commanding officer.”**

“Rose Quartz A01.”

**“Commanding officer registered as Rose Quartz A01. Is this correct?”**

“Yes.”

**“Allegiance update complete. New allegiance registered to: unaffiliated. Is this correct?”**

“Yes, thank you.”

**“Allegiance override confirmed.”** Pearl blinked herself out of the trance that overtook her during commands. “So whom do I belong to then?”

“Pearl.” Rose said as she placed a hand gently on Pearl’s shoulder; it covered her shoulder completely. “You belong to no one. Do you understand?”

Pearl blinked. “I mean, I suppose in theory, but how do I know what to do now?” She felt lost and momentarily afraid. Rose Quartz sighed.

“Obviously you wouldn’t know.” She berated herself. “Since you’re unsure, you can tag along with me for now, okay?” Rose Quartz said, smiling comfortingly.

Pearl stared, open-mouthed. The gem who hypnotized her, hypnotized everyone, had asked her to accompany her. It was hardly believable. How a defective pearl like her had earned the right, she had no idea. She thought briefly that maybe Rose Quartz had simply taken pity on her. Regardless, she was dumbstruck. She looked into her soft brown eyes once more and felt her own melt at the coziness within them.

“Okay,” Pearl said quietly, never daring to look away except for when she bowed on one knee before her new liege. “I will serve you until the ends of the world, Rose Quartz.”

A finger pulled Pearl’s chin up to face Rose again, and Pearl faltered. It looked like she had done something wrong, because Rose looked upset. “Well, at least it’s a start.” She said, beckoning for Pearl to stand again. “We are equals Pearl, no matter what others may believe or what you may have been led to believe.”

“But Ma’am,” Pearl started, “I’m just a pearl. I’m not able to do anything.” She looked downcast and thought of Iolite. She was certainly able to murder her. She fought off the thought.

“Pearl, you are your own gem,” Rose Quartz said with authority. “You’ll learn what that means in time.” Pearl hesitated, but nodded. It seemed she had a lot to learn still.

“Now,” Rose said with a loud clap of her hands, “let’s leave this dreadful place! I’ll have it destroyed before tomorrow, don’t worry.”

“You will?” Pearl asked, disbelieving.

“I will. I won’t allow others to feel or act the way you have been forced to. It’s wrong. Don’t you agree?” Rose asked. Pearl found it interesting how much Rose asked for her opinion or asked her to speak in general. It was very different.

“Yes I do.” Pearl said quietly. While Rose motioned for Pearl to follow her out of the door, Pearl thought of Iolite. She thought of how she had predicted that Pearl would save them all. She smiled in spite of the pain.

_‘I may not have been able to save you, Iolite,’_ Pearl thought, _‘but I shut it all down. I wonder if you would be proud of me.’_

A stream of light hit her eye and she shielded her sight from it with a wince. Her smile grew wider. _‘I’ll take that as a yes.’_

Like a two-gem parade she followed Rose through the corridors of the rings, bound only by her will to follow the gem who saved her life who walked before her. She was free. It was hard to swallow, but it seemed Rose Quartz would help her understand. She watched Rose’s curly hair dance, lively and glittering in found light. She found herself thinking again about how beautiful she was.

_‘I did make it, Iolite, you were right.’_ Pearl allowed her tears to fall, but a smile accompanied them. _‘You were the reason why though, and I’ll always be thankful for that.’_

_‘Thank you, Iolite, for freeing me.’_ Rose Quartz turned back with a hand held out, and Pearl reached for it strongly this time. They stepped out of the rings, and into the beginning of her life.


	10. Epilogue

The story of a pearl was never a particularly happy one, and rarely a very free one.

Our Pearl had the privilege of turning that idea straight on its head.

The lights of the outdoors were blinding and she’d shut her eyes immediately from the burn. The hand that pulled hers had stopped, waited, until she had adjusted her vision. Gone was the dreary sameness of her cell and the rings and the underground. Now, multicolor lights, sounds and smells bombarded the senses.

Homeworld was a colorful place. The city was filled to the brim with eccentric styles and loud music and laughter. Gems stalked around in their fanciest clothing and latest technology, completely unaware of the warehouse just down the road that had housed hundreds of illegal fights. Pearl wondered how many of these well-dressed women had attended the fights.

The walk home had been difficult. Pearl had begun to panic from the overexposure; surrounded by so many foreign gems put her in flight mode. Rose Quartz had pulled her aside to a grim alleyway for her to collect her thoughts away from the bustle of the streets. She had made a half-hearted joke about how Pearl had “just escaped a life like this, how cruel it was that she had to calm down in the dirt and darkness.” Pearl laughed a bit through her shivering breaths, and Rose Quartz’s smile eased her into enough strength to make it the rest of the way to her home.

Rose Quartz was the most extraordinary gem on Homeworld, Pearl thought. She was kind, she listened, and she regarded Pearl with the respect she would give to any comrade in the military. She was frequently called to action away from her flat downtown, but Pearl had free reign of the place while she was gone. She often found herself lost in the bookshelves, where Rose had taken the time to continue the lessons that Iolite had begun months, or perhaps it had been years, prior. She could read and write fluently now.

Days came and went where Pearl would struggle to break free from her memories, but if Rose Quartz found it irritating she never showed it. Pearl felt so at home with her around. She made her feel whole and welcome. Her gratefulness knew no bounds.

When Pearl felt comfortable leaving home after several years of rehabilitation and rest, she couldn’t have been prepared for what she witnessed. She’d seen the oversized hats and the living accessories toted around through the window several stories above, but it all looked so fantastical that she’d never considered the implications of materialism. The poison that pervaded the rich gems’ minds was potent but disguised, hidden carefully from view.

As Pearl carefully removed herself from willful isolation, she discovered how truly imprisoned pearls were. They were slaves in the city just as she’d been a slave in the underground. It was hardly different. The thought made her head spin.

Pearl learned that although their prisons had doors without locks and decent showers and daylight, the pearls in Homeworld were just as trapped as she had been, and with no method to expel the energy as she had in the rings…

The pearls on Homeworld weren’t as friendly as Pearl had hoped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everyone for your incredible show of support! I have loved bringing you this story. This concludes part one of the saga, but much more is to come... Please stay tuned for the sequel to 'Pearl', titled 'Caustic'! Again I thank you for your support and hope to see you back very soon.


End file.
